Laurence Overmire Poems

Light shot through diaphanous wing
Fifty beats per second

Its long beak dipped in the flower of
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Farewell
Fond traveler
Your ship sets out to sea
With only the stars to guide you
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Michelangelo
Was born black in 20th century America.

He was a shoeshine boy and a waiter
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Nineteen years old
He lost his legs

A field of shard and wire
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How many years
A city, a country, a people sliced in two
Look back
Upon a simpler time
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As an outsider, looking in
You might wonder why
No glory, no golden global Oscar
Is bestowed on those
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The serpent slides through the birth canal
...and out into the fullness of a life

writhing its way around the spiral of the years
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Sunlight through the window
birdsongs catch the morning mist
day dreams taking flight
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What is the difference between a black man and a white man?
Is there a difference between a Japanese and a Chinese?
A Bosnian and a Serb?
How about the difference between a Protestant and a Catholic?
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Sometimes I feel like I’m
Just filling space
Like a poem
In someone’s newspaper
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