Pamela Sumners
Fault Lines
I tremble for my country, Mr. Jefferson,
when I reflect that God is just. I tremble
like the children in cold mylar blankets
that a gust of wind could blow from cages
where they sleep on cold concrete that
might just be the bedrock of our nation
I tremble, and my tremors are a terrible rage
that might shift tectonic plates on fault lines
that always were the witch at the christening
I tremble hot magma hardening to igneous
I tremble at the thoughts and prayers of
indifferent pedigree knitting a stench in the air.
And when anger hardens, it trembles no more.
Pamela Sumners is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer. Her work has appeared in Ucity Review, Mudlark Posters, Eunoia Review, Shot Glass Journal, Streetlight Magazine, and other journals, as well as in the anthology The 64 Best Poets of 2018 (Black Mountain Press, 2018), chosen by the editors of The Halcyone literary review. Sumners lives in St. Louis with her wife, son, and three rescue dogs.
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