Free! Poem by Jacques Fleury

[Excerpt from Fleury's Boston Globe featured poetry book 'Sparks in the Dark: A Lighter Shade of Blue, A Poetic Memoir', which is archived at the University of Massachusetts's Healy Research Library in Boston...


Dock
we'll dock stones
roll and
we'll unroll
In my America
the big flying eagle
birds well done abroad.
Two groups of people
the rich and the poor
the young and the old
the white and the black
and three tons of fat
all in procession
silent tales are blooming
flowers growing shells
olive branches
climbing white house walls
two candles burning
shades of gray
I trust in god
holy bloody Sunday comes
Sunday morning
god bless those whose veins
bear none
twilight swallows the moon
darkness
descends
soldiers gone AWOL
run like panthers
here and gone
they've staged a snare
running rivers very dry mouths
Dutiful soldiers beat their drums
paragons of strength and honor
masquerade balls
dinky shoots smack and
the dumb blond flunks
fall down stand up
walk the line
walk backwards
juggling well
will set you free

--Jacques Fleury