December 2024
Bio Note: I’m a retired English Professor and live with my wife in the Northeast. My poetry collections A Matter of Timing, Time is Not a River, and Morning Calm as well as a chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, are all available on Amazon
Quote of the Month: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quote of the Month: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Heard a River
I heard a river behind a closed door;
it told me a secret for which I had yearned
of the dead who slumber and wait for more.
History repeating whatever came before,
waiting for the past to return;
I heard a river behind a closed door.
Shaking off dust and bullets and gore,
bread and bones and all that was learned
of the dead who slumber and wait for more.
The wind blows up from the Mexican wars;
the ashes of the past escape from the urn;
I heard a river behind a closed door.
Borders shift, open, close, then bodies pour,
hunger and thirst in the desert burn;
the dead slumber and wait for more.
Santa Anna, Villa, Aztec kings all implore;
voices from below I can now discern.
I heard a river behind a closed door
of the dead who slumber and wait for more.
Previously appeared in my book Time Is Not A River
©2024 Michael Minassian
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