Born lucky, privileged
to pursue a life of ease.
Embrace the unlucky.
Recite those murky struggles
often to change your known world.
Born into struggle.
An unknown battle through youth.
Precious few escape.
Resolve to break systemic
control by the privileged many.
The ease of the whites
to turn away from black pain
produces pained land.
Decide to delete divides.
Devote muscle for race unity.
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- artwork by Roy Lichtenstein, “Haystack” -
- mailed to Idaho -
That beating weight
of a toddler
Lying chest to chest upon a chest
Breathing steady sleep
Awakens extreme calmness
in both bodies
A package no other soul penetrates
until disturbed
Watching a trance deepen
surrounded by dream
Witnessing the opposite of hysteria
A distress-free frenzy-less zone
Revered and envied
by parents of teenagers
And those fiercely observant
notice the loveliest of human conditions
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- artwork by Y.Z. Kami -
- mailed to Washington -
So far it doubles the disease
tripling again again the life of this pain
It hurts holding heaven so close
when touching red black embers from hell
Break the brain
to forget the time after the doubling time
Blow long so hard by and by
until it's time to goodbye
Close, yet still doubling past my eye
the promise of never again
cry
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- artwork by Karine Laval -
- mailed to Texas -
Mom your stride is too long.
I cannot keep up.
Dad slows his step,
paying attention to me,
but then speeds on until
he pays attention again.
We hold hands when approaching colored lights.
I try to count how many steps equal one of his.
Usually more than 3, sometimes 2.
It’s hard to figure.
I can do 2 for 1 Mom stride, when we first leave.
Then it gets crazy. I half run, walk, skip twice to
keep up. I keep trying to count.
We step down a curb where Mom will
toe walk even faster. Yup, her heals won’t even
touch the ground until we step up the curb again.
Once I tried giant strides when Mom was toe walking.
It kinda worked but my shoulder got sore.
I grew. My stride grew too.
Now Mom and Dad walk with wheelchairs.
They never ask to slow when I push them.
I wonder if they ever count.
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- mailed to Oklahoma -
A pulse positions
itself as life critical.
Sear off excess now.
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- artwork by Paul Sietsema -
- mailed to South Dakota -
A breeze breaks the silence
Disturbs the calm napping body
And delicately nudges with a
Hint of peace, as needed
Memory forgets the breeze quickly
Like joy followed by tragedy
Like a bad golf swing followed by a good one
That breeze evaporates unceremoniously, unasked
Arising with awaiting to-do lists for living
Trapped by warrior-like loyalty to being busy
Crashing into greedy appetites for approval from the gods-of-completion
Now the silence seeks the breeze, for oxygen
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- artwork by Zamir Shatz -
- mailed to California -
Welcome to the jungle,
that impartial challenger for
all living creatures, putting
good, right and lovely
to question
Welcome to my jungle,
a minuscule highway of
intersecting and crashing events,
causing relationships and work
to teeter between yes and no
Welcome to their jungle,
where the risk to penetrate
may cost heart vulnerability,
where the ability to dream large
is turned-on, by them
Welcome to a jungle,
where flowing comfortably
is riskiest
Survival demands we navigate these jungles
Best, "Love each other, Do your work"
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- artwork by Sarah Mikenis -
mailed to South Dakota
Unlike nature
or sidewalk garbage or fingernail length,
portraits of love stamped in our eyes
stay static, unchanged.
Intellect or derelict, vagrant or wealthy,
the portraits endure
despite
births and deaths, marriages and miscarriages.
Indulging in portrait graffiti
defaces memories. Yet
unmoved,
foundations endure.
Portraits of love stamped in our eyes
need organizing.
Stories and tragedies,
adventures and excursions bubble up.
And we organize, so we may improvise,
seemingly effortlessly,
onto new portraits
with a stamp unique our own.
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- artwork by Beverly Pepper -
- mailed to Kentucky -
Bloated music misses.
Its anatomy feels overdone
preachy, screamy, sentimental,
agendaed, intentioned
It's governed
by something other (than art).
Song circumvents everything.
If perfect for you
might be perfect differently for them
and imperfect for others.
Ears listen, brain interrupts
and interprets for the limbs.
Dance it says.
Move, the music implores.
Hum along while living the day.
Playing excites, while music ignites.
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- artwork by Roy Lichtenstein -
- mailed to North Dakota -
Breeding nerves
can become a sport
akin to talking.
Like sound, nerves travel in waves.
Intense ones
move furthest or
they impact hardest, nearest
Breeding nerves can appear smart;
like ultra concerned about an issue
until the audience leaves,
then nerves return to feed on you
Animals breed nerves too.
Might simply be a survival instinct.
Maybe for humans too.
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- artwork by Juan Capistran - "Still I Rise Above"
- mailed to Hawaii -
It blows heat on wounds
It shows shows, dumb to great
In pockets in cars in schools also bars
In talks at parties, turned on while making love
We gawk at it. We watch ourselves
Bytes of history from this age
It moved the world toward seeing itself
far-off vision
tele vision
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- artwork by Rene Magritte, "L’empire des lumières (The Dominion of Light)," 1954
- mailed to California -
the pounding, the news, the people, me
taking words, taking stories, taking lives, move aside
no respite, no flowering, no outstanding, so exposed
just conscious, just do, just authority, justice
please remove, please discard, please educate, about cancers
remember history, remember family, remember you, in youth
so small, so curious, so full, wonder
make mind, make body, make projects, learn love
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- artwork by William Eggleston -
- mailed to Nevada -
Starlight moonbright
knocking at the door
"Come out to say
come out to play"
says the neighbor tapping from heaven's shore
"How do you stay brighter than the light" I ask
knowing full well it's a ghost from the past
Friend and foe shine into mirrors of the mind
The light so bright
bridges day and night
sorrow with delight
Then compulsive fright
of dismantling current life
to a vision blinded by a knocking and nothing more
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- artwork by Gerhard Richter -
- mailed to Utah -