what can a poem do?

a poem cannot save a life

cannot Luke Cage your skin

fend off a dark alley attack

cannot make you less woman

or less poor

or less Black

and

thus

treated equally

a poem cannot stop a bullet

stop a bomb

stop terror on your doorstep

your step

even with poem in hand

could be your last

a blast would turn the paper poem is written on into dust

particles

           simile up in smoke

metaphors

           just molecules forgotten

a poem cannot turn back time’s hand

erase mistakes made

or cut, copy, paste memories

a poem cannot delete history’s horrors

but a poem can love

           like hold you and scold you at the same time

a poem can rip away the untruths that have cocooned us

a poem can make you butterfly

           not fly

                      you already fly

but a poem can make you float

no need to watch your step

quiet as kept

a poem can introduce you to yourself

help you discover those hidden

           forbidden parts

a poem be like a mirror sometimes

help you see the crust in your eyes

and the plank

on second thought

a poem can save a life

like wise words granddaddy whispered

like the layer of truth just below the scriptures

a poem cannot stop a bullet

but can swallow the hate and spit back

           a sonnet

that sonic booms

a room till

quotes

float like balloons

goblins and goons

soon just nod their heads

snap their fingers

to what’s written and said

isn’t it ironic

they say the pen is mightier than the sword

but there were few writers on my block

mostly fighters on my block

dropouts that pulled all-nighters on my block

they’d blue and red light us on my block

then indict us on my block

what if there were more writers on my block

on your block

in every barrio and borough

conclave and commonwealth

courtroom and capitol hill

what if they all spilled ink

on pages

allowed the innerworkings of their hearts

to scribble a poem or two

I wonder where we’d be if the masses knew

just what a poem could do.