Stanley Joseph Vinet Jr. Vinet Poems

We want to be loved with no limits;
We need love with no gimmicks.
We want to be held onto for dear life;
We want to hold a hand with that doesn't hold a knife.
...

My soul is old and worn; like the soles of your favorite shoes.
Is that why you have a tendency to step on it?
My heart is scared and barred; like some old convict.
Is that why you treat it so roughly?
...

I had that dream again;
except I woke this time,
just to find it came true.
But the worse part,
...

I will not come as a thief in the night; they cannot be stolen.
And I have sold myself to them for all eternity.
I will not come bearing gifts; they cannot be bought.
And I pay their cost every day.
...

If I could have ripped my heart out,
To spread it before you like so many poems and hymns of love;
You would have seen how wrong you were;
How you jumped the gun;
...

From the warm dark I was thrown
into a world so cold and unknown.
A child herself, she had no right
She gave me breath, but offered no life.
...

When the last crumb was eaten,
When the last child was beaten,

When the last foul touch was taken,
...

-reply after reading his 'Theme for English B'

What
Color-race-ethnicity-
...

Slowly and steadily the world turns;
I hang on for dear little lives.
For the end I try not to yearn.
I dig down deep and push faster;
...

Once the sun shone because of you;
Once the birds did fly for you;
Once the night was warm & wet with you.
Now the nights are cold and dark;
...