Repost from MySpace Blog

Here are a few poems I read at the Open Mic at the Arms Library on Friday.

This is one I originally wrote in 1999 but revised on Friday.

Her Day In Court

Victims are not equal in the eyes of the law.

Is a stabbing ever anything but violence?
Does the victim ever want to be stabbed
then change his mind?
Was the victim ever provoking the stabbing?
Perhaps by the clothes he wore
that may have indicated
he had experience with being stabbed?

Some are made guilty and never proven innocent.

She came to say two things:
This was not a sexual act.
This was not her fault.
She swore this to God on their bible.
She knew that people said what they did
because they believed it will not happen
to someone like them -- just someone like her.

She came here to defend herself -- again.

ltv


These are two I wrote on Friday (shamefully during work)

if I speak
I become
visible
vulnerable
attackable

if I speak
do I criticize
without offering
alternatives

if I speak
do I plead
to those
who know more
than I do
to take action
when they haven't
already done so

if I speak
will things change
and if they do
will that be good
and if they don't
how bad will that be

if I speak
who will hear
what if I choose
the wrong audience
is that my fault
does that mean
I shouldn't speak at all

if I speak
and no one hears
am I better off
having spoken

if I speak
and someone agrees
and they also speak
to others who agree
will speaking
lead to action

ltv

Shipwrecked

I write to you
who feels alone
abandoned
in a crowded mind
stepping out
of comfort zones
I write to you
since you know
how it is to hurt
you understand
uncertainty
and struggle
for clarity
amid the waves
of energy
now crashing
all around you
I write to you
this message
in a bottle
letting you know
that you will
be rescued
now that you
have learned
how to swim

ltv