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Live your questions now,
and perhaps
even without knowing it, you will live
along some distant day into your
answers.
Rainer Maria Rilke
in between the underwear ads and the text of the presidential address
there is the question only a child would dare ask why
in 1941 it cost 5 cents to print the compound equation of all our doubts
six generations later there are still no answers
we appear cleaner than we did yesterday
our hands tied to the remote
we watch shrapnel burrow in an endless desert
an engineering student seared live!
the school of mud walls collapses live!
a maidservant’s lung perched on bayonet live!
our perverse uncle burnt in effigy all live!
child of questions sing sweet reason
make of your eyes reflecting pools
catch them at their windows
stop them mid-sentence
barking into red phones
their tongues barbed with this nonsensical language
its rules always bending to make way for exclusion
child of questions fight off your ABCs
block print apathy A B U
Abu Haider is taping his windows
he will stand alone to defend his bookstore
his daughter’s questions ringing in his head
fifth graders down the hall spin 50 Cent
cause they gonna get rich or die trying
the war drum is bouncing down Hoover in a 67’ Impala
red and white stripes whipping from the chrome rims
child of questions driving uninsured
his sagging-jean resolve to get back at the MAN
a wardrobe not afforded peace of mind
copyright 2004
Ariel
Robello |
