Blessing No One by Jeff Burt

Blessing No One

We are at war
with ourselves
since we cannot be at war
with others

claim a peace
beyond borders
but an occupation
within

all created =
striving to become ≠
by stabbing a knife
between two ribs of otherness

one’s dollars do not stack up
to another’s dollars
the larger stack
repeatedly takes from the smaller

if not wealth to distribute
the poor ask about income
displaying their poverty
of thinking as well

we build cheap houses
by freeways
so the cost of living
enslaves

we gather cheap fruits
per-fumigated
hallucinatory
if you don’t inhale

whites fear
a lost society
blacks
have never found

whites fear
a loss of advantage
browns
have never gained

whites fear
a moral degradation
they were never inclined
to keep

a person in a tent
is no nomad
but mad, stripped
of sex, a no-man

counted on
but not relied upon
fed
but not nourished

one’s overpass
is another’s underpass
unless the other
cannot pass over

course the verb
of blood running
coarse the hand
that makes the bleed

we bless everyone
and thus no one
words evaporate
before hitting ground

 

About the Poet
Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California with his wife. He works in mental health. He has contributed to Williwaw Journal, Rabid Oak, Heartwood, Kestrel, and Tar River Poetry. He won the 2017 Cold Mountain Review Poetry Prize.