Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Stephen Jarrell Williams: Two Poems





GET ME TO THE RIOT

Get me to the riot
before they block the streets

I've got to see
what it's all come down to

night glowing in the distance
end of how it was

taxi stops to let me out
this is as far as he goes

roar behind the tall buildings
popping shots and screams

down the street rolling smoke
a man limping from the haze

his eyes swollen and lip bleeding
carrying a smoldering rag of a flag

I jump out of the cab
walk past him into the wave of smoke

coughing back to when the world was born
in a wink of fire.




THE BURN


My hat on fire

night sky watching my sputtering
in the tired crowd leaving the scene

smoke stains in our nostrils
hair heavy with soot and bloody knots

many arrested and dragged away in cuffs

heroes of the city
depleting the underground

another march tomorrow
until no more

rain washing the gutters clean

going to sleep in my cell
flames spreading from my pillow

igniting newborns.



Stephen Jarrell Williams loves to stay up all night and write with lightning bolts until they fizzle down behind the dark horizon.