Friday, December 10, 2010

DESPOILED

DESPOILED

Youthful fluids rush
her aging body
immoral pleasures storm
her evil soul
wickedness bestows
an inapt darkness
lustful forces
grasp engage control

Iniquities flaunt
deities of satan
a naked boy
a sullied bathroom floor
for love of teacher
educator mentor
a virgin’s sperm
a classroom savvy whore

A cold forbidding sky
now in the making
blood drenched and bruised
a young boy heads for home
in lieu of love
compassion, understanding
he’s left adrift
and raped
he’s all alone

©2008Shirley

TRAFFICKED

TRAFFICKED

Be still my love

the pain shall pass
as pleasures bliss
beguiles you to
my side

your painful cries
will hypnotize
as threats of death
subside

I’ve killed you once
my precious

I’ll kill you yet again

you’ll die
a thousand deaths
and more
before this madness ends

be still my slave
my puppet

we’re doing this my way

spread wide your legs
and smile –

that’s right

I speak and you obey

©2007Shirley

STILL NO CHANGE

STILL NO CHANGE

I feel your fingers
gently maneuvering
along my inner thigh,
warm against my brand
new cotton gown.

No! Not again!

I’ll tell this time
I swear I will.

Everyone will know
and you will die!

Loving hands fondle
my never touch place,
hard knuckles stroking back
and forth, in and out,
making me sad all over,

I’ll cry this time,
they’ll see the tears
I swear they will.

Everyone will know
and you will die!

Passionately your tongue presses hard
against my dried and broken lips,
ripping and tearing with
every thrust,

I can scream
I know I can,
Someone will hear me
they’ve got to hear me,

Stop! Please stop!
I’ll tell this time
I swear I will.

Everyone will know
and you will die!

Sounds,
voices in the hall,
I hear them,
they are coming
they will stop you!

They’ll see my tears,
they’ll hear my screams,

Everyone will know
and you will die!

“Good morning ma’am”

“Good morning and
how is she today?”

“still no change ma’am,
still no change.”

©2007Shirley

Friday, November 12, 2010

THE MUSEUM

THE MUSEUM

Bodies beguiled and hung on darkened vintage
death epitomized in hand carved wooden frames
models of planes contrived for powerful killing
chronicled weapons laid out on display

visions of Auschwitz flaunt Stuthof and Dresden
discerning history’s genocidal flares
inferring history’s blatant incarnations
killing machine descendents feign ensnared

tyrants evince pride through social bondage
labor intensive servitudes inflame
governments endue a sullied freedom
slavery hovels death’s surmised disdain

archeologists tell our gruesome story
photographers expose our flagrant wars
Africa, Europe, North and South America
museums collect the ugliness of it all

curators brandish genocide’s repugnance
patrons lexical genocidal pains
artist flaunt the history of our lineage
a chattel sold, an economical gain

lessons learned abstain from social justice
no captured joy amidst the archived pain
atrocities now pictures hung for viewing
museums foretell our lessons learned in vain

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

BARTERED

BARTERED

hunger diminishes me
thirst demurs my thinking
the life I tote astounds my frame
defiles my craved existence

upon this block I bargain
my soul inflamed in shame
two arms two legs a beating heart
for barter sale or trade

need I de-school my life for you
sodden in filth and shame
striped of essence and being
my famines on display

this vast judicial hellhole
is all I have to give
the land and people that I love
beheaded, raped and killed

the blanket is included
I wove the yarn by hand
he’s got no Aids or HIV
he’ll grow to be a man

my solitary jewel
ten toes on tiny feet
to wet the stench upon my tongue
for bread a square of meat

I do not thrive I won’t survive
militias rule my land
I’m traumatized and hungry
my crisis is my stand

upon this block I bargain
my soul inflamed in shame
two arms two legs a beating heart
for barter, sale or trade

Sunday, October 3, 2010

REVOKED

REVOKED

We ask you kindly to leave this place
We no longer want you around.
Your chiefs and leaders equivocate
Our authority remains propound.

Your armies harass and pilfer
Your security teams rape and kill.
You’re holding no one accountable
For the blood my people spill.

This is the place our forefathers braved
Where thousands of ancestors died.
You destroyed everything they accomplished
With your browbeating, loathing and lies.

In the midst of our political crisis
Statewide resolution absconds.
Our leaders are wadding the waters
As our tribes and our clans slowly drown.

Is my parliament made up of puppets
Controlled by your margins and bounds,
Whilst your coalition provisional pundit
Remains unabashed and profound?

Don’t sell me your internal hearings
Your assessment’s no more than a ruse.
This is my country my homeland
To hell with your canons and views.

Everywhere people are dying
Our civil war isn’t a joke.
This bloodbath you created is over
Your license has been revoked.

From "ONE DAY; Life, Love and Controversy in Middle America
by SHIRLEY HOWARD HALL

Saturday, September 25, 2010

ADULTERY

Where were we meant to be
in the yesterdays of our lives?
is fate so fragile that time alone
has changed our course?

in love we came together,
open hearts and anxious minds.
in inert reprisal we grew apart,
open hearts and anxious minds.

nostalgia now surrounds us
in this subtle place and time.
whilst waves of fury entrenched within
are eating our souls alive.

does life offer no more than rampage?
does fate protect the enraged heart?
must our lives belong to someone else?
are we void dignity, void pride?

where were we meant to be
in the yesterdays of our lives?
in love you blindly took my hand
I held your heart in mine.


©ONE DAY; Life, Love and Controversy in Middle America 2008
by Shirley Howard Hall

Saturday, September 11, 2010

MISSIONER

Poverty overwhelms me
garbage makes me spew
my body pangs, my stomach aches
I’m indigent, cold and crude

your bibles are a blessing
yet reading is a chore
when your illiterate, cold and hungry
and sleeping on a floor

your angels are angelic
in their omnipotent shades of white
yet I’m the shade of ashes
and demons rein my nights

I roam the streets of cities
I’m vagabond and whore
society looks down on me
your churches lock their doors

I’ll be your pure of spirit
I’ll sing a hymn or two
just bring some bread and water
old clothes a pair of shoes

your kingdom of heaven awaits you
your meek shall inherit the earth
you’ll rejoice and revile in your reward
for you are the salt of this earth

yet you don’t understand my fortitude
or acknowledge poverty’s pain
you turn your back when I appear
you fear my touch might stain

teach me the ancient scriptures
we’ll pray for me and you
then drag a box beneath a bridge
one big enough for two.

From the book "LISTEN"
by Shirley Howard Hall