The Outsider's Tongue Poem by The Poet SPIEL

the outsider's tongue


without fear
riding bareback
set high upon a wet horse
with no reins
this outsider fires his tongue
shooting straight
his words
like the heart of fire

he is drunk with freedom
from the boundaries
that fetter others
to frighten them from saying
what they want to say

he ruffles the sober
transfigures eyes of the blind
leaves the complacent bleeding
then—so be it—
jolts his mount to gallop on
to other and more needy climes
while abandoning the meekest
who shudder
behind the shock of revelation:
fight it
or die with
what they have found