Mothers Have Always Wandered and Searched

On August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 By dorahakIn Poems17 Comments

Mothers have always
wandered and searched
still as gravestones
in blood-soaked cities and fields
for their daughters, their sons.

It concerns them not
when lies unravel, whether
thugs come in uniforms or turbans
by force of law and terror
masking regime bureaucrats and zealots.

Ten people, including seven children, were killed by a U. S. drone strike on Sunday. “At first I thought it was the Taliban,” one survivor said. “But the Americans themselves did it.”¹Thirteen U. S. Marine Corps, Army & Navy service members were killed in Kabul’s suicide bombing last week.² Their average age was 22. That same day, August 26^th, in Chicago, a security guard shot a man three times for not wearing a mask³.

In Honor of Daniil Kharms

On August 23, 2021 By dorahakIn Poems49 Comments

“Today I wrote nothing”

on Twitter

as people fell out of Windows

on Amazon’s Prime Day sale

like cats and dogs

and me heart-less

in the cell on Facebook

padlocked

when the famine came

and the rations ran out

and the rats came in.

Writer Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) is one of Russia’s great absurdists, his black humor seemingly politically opaque, but troublesome enough to alert Soviet authorities who threw him in prison where he died forgotten by his jailers.

Join us a dVerse where we are writing a quadrille (44 words exactly) using the word "heart." Click Mr. Linky to read more.

Body Politic, or Intensive Care

On June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 By dorahakIn Culture, Poems27 Comments

Whom the fire burned
is under gauze.
Was it once black or white or non-white?
What the closed eyes?
What myriad colors swirl beneath the bandages?
Sins of color stain even a child.
What absolution have we
if we offer such sacrifices as the gods decree?
And if it walks like blind Tiresias
what will it prophesy
but death which comes to all
and judgment.

*“Yellow School Bus” ©* Glenn A. Buttkus: *“A school bus must have a plethora of pulsating and reflecting* *lights, because nothing is more precious than its cargo.”*

In keeping witht the theme of minimalism in art, Sanaa at dVerse writes: “I want you all to select one out of the twelve photographs shared … and write a poem. It can be an Ekphrastic poem, if you like. Go philosophical. Go dark or romantic or solemn. Share what you feel about Minimalist photography when you see it. The idea here is to provoke an emotion, and what better way to pour them out other than poetry?” Click on Mr. Linky and join in.