FEARSOME

 

1.

Fear of not knowing is a chilling

fear, a cold war fear, green walls,

bowed heads, the fear

baby boomers might have experienced;

 

I wanted suicide pills in my pocket, just in case

I didn’t want survival. Fear of what:

a nuclear weapon, a bomb? No bomb

shelter. I was clueless.  I wasn’t fit

to be a living martyr.

 

But, that was then, pre-Kennedy.  I was

eleven or twelve, without words.  Intellect

was government food on the table, cradled

by child support and a fearless, single

mother.

 

2.

2017, fear is hot, fear an inferno.

Fear deeper than a sixth grade girl,

green walls, a cold war.

 

THIS fear is smart fear.  Aware.

Listens.  Questions.  What is

An Executive Order?  Grand

Standing, a stance set in brick

walls?  Walls do eventually

crumble or get knocked down.

I like my walls to be fences,

fences to be metaphor, satire,

and cost nothing—but wisdom.

Free words rumbling

and tumbling wild.

 

This fear knows too much.  It weighs

heavy with take aways and prophet

demands.

 

3.

I have known prophets. Who hasn’t believed

they were Jesus? I was a flower child, more

child than prophet, more disciple than deity.

Some of us deserve empathy.  Call it

maturation.

 

Some say mentally unstable,

deranged.  Don’t be fooled.

One has to be worthy

of psychiatric labeling  as excuse or definition.

Evil.  Out of control narcissist. Evil.

I’ve seen it before, but never this pronounced.

 

4.

Greed is unbelievable and unbecoming.  Greed will be

Undone.  I call for a bell bottom revival, tie

dye shirts, and love-ins.  “The Mystical Magical Tour”

and the “White Rabbit.”

 

Reefer is everywhere, we’ve got the weed.  At least,

until another Executive Order.

 

“Mystical Magical Tour,” Lennon–McCartney, 1967, 8 December 1967

“White Rabbit,” Grace Wing Slick (Jefferson Airplane)

 

©Sherry Quan Lee

January 26, 2017

 

About Sherry

Author. Poet. Teacher. Mentor. Chinese/Blackbird.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.