John Huey
Carry Them Down
Pull them down from the belfry
with humility and compounded
formulas to capture the day.
Reckon and dicker with the unclothed,
squeezed from power to blend
on the pavements,
Down alley dead ends where the
dispossessed were once meant to
dwell.
For today we write the manifesto and
lie in grief prostrate on the hill where
the powers take the high ground looking
in confusion at us in the swamp below,
Thinking that they can rely on being
strong of tongue and limb.
Why then are they so coarse to banish
thoughts of mercy?
Always arrogant,
Bold enough to know but
never enough to care,
Rushing forward on subterranean thought,
The track and habit that is not mindful
of what was promised as promised lands
that miserably failed on delivery.
And expecting forgiveness at the end of a
Day where it was down to betrayals and
Professions of all virtue the cynic cries in
Derision as broken timbers fall from broken
Homes and the rusted untended wheel takes
All flight from the brave and settles
Down to rest.
Brown dust and cries frozen underground.
John Huey is the author of The Moscow Poetry File (Finishing Line Press, 2017). His poems have appeared in Poetry Quarterly, Leannan Magazine, Sein und Werden, In Between Hangovers, Bourgeon, The Lost River Review, Red Wolf Journal, Poydras Review, Flatbush Review, Memoir Mixtapes, and Perfume River Poetry Review. His work has also appeared in the anthologies Temptation (Lost Tower Publications, 2016), edited by P.J. Reed; Unbelief (Local Gems Press, 2018), edited by Thomas Ragazzi and Marc Rosen; and Addiction & Recovery (Madness Muse Press, 2018), edited by Chani Zwibel. Visit his website at john-huey.com.
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