J. Freeborn
At the Beginning
at the beginning / does disruption hold
anger responds to atrocity / rebuilds the house that was burned
is the movement / power I used to be angry but
I am a hollow house / in the Berkshires
Mohican and Mohawk hunted / Shakers settled
their graves and dancing sites still / found in the birch and oak
maple and pine a trail / thirty miles now or more
mist on the lake is not / boiling and the court
of the conqueror has no / capacity to hear
the claims / of the dead
—Submitted on 11/13/2020
Authors’s Note: The poet acknowledges their grateful utilization of the words of President Barack Obama, Professor Myisha Cherry, and Mark Vanhoenacker.
J. Freeborn is a teacher in New York. Their work has appeared in Yes Poetry, Rising Phoenix Review, oxford public philosophy, and elsewhere. They are the anthology books managing editor at The Poetry Society of New York.
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