"Strength" (7-Minute Poem For NaPoWriMo, 4/5)

Strength (7-Minute Poem For NaPoWriMo, 4/5/11)



All I've ever had was strength.
I show it in the cracks. I smooth
out stone on stone, I sheen with use.

All I've ever known was shame
and philosophy: Plato's Republic,
The Birth of Tragedy, Young Werther's Sorrows...

I have an affinity with the sea,
my sailor's blood, my stance:
my wild stallion, the waves

I do not enter lightly. I moan
and creak, the leather of a slave.
I can take the heat; hell, a sudden parting.

I do not know. I hold
fast, the spirit text: the great
death inside us; strong, inside us.



Lorna Dee Cervantes
4/5/11