The Word Poem by Joshua Bantum

The Word
With all its might,
Like a shard of lightening,
Reveals the path from beneath the night
And I
drunk and staggering
Crash upon the Word
A half dead bird striped from flight....

I see its spark beneath me
Futile in its light

The fire cuddled in the darkness
Ages inside the rock
It flickers
A dying sun
As I refuse to talk
My drunkenness soon fades away
But I stay to rought
my languid body rusts
My lips dry to chalk

Soon beneath the feet of many
I'm pounded in between
The path and I are crushed together
The Word and I are seamed

I draw upon its fickle flame
And in turn
Fuel life back to its domain
Using me as its vessel
But For me
It is my cane
And walking afloat upon the brimestone
No longer do I feel pain.

I hear the murderous cries
From the beast that was contained
It rasps against my brain stem
To translate its disdain
Cursing aganist the feigned
Who sacrfice nothing for what's they've obtained
They toss the Word beneath them
Speaking its name in vain
Not crediting the earth
And all that is around
Where when the clock finally breaks
To the earth is where life drains down

I walk aside the lantern now
Along this path that is my own
And when this borrowed shard of light
Starts to lose its supple tone
Ill give it back to the land
but forever to it I'll be sewn