For every bomb dropped, particle of noxious air belched,
for every last syllable of loathing overheard,
moral violence spewed, every barbed lie,
choke hold, groping, ignorant oath, every
truth denied, every shrug in the midst of indecency,
Is there an answer in the stanza,
a poem that can override the filibuster?”
Will the bell in the fuchsia
toll for the mesmerized?
Is there enough nectar in the hibiscus,
enough dew to quench parched minds?
Is that a camellia blooming on the
blood-stained bandage,
a harp in the carnage of a smashed piano?
Can the trumpet in the foxglove be heard?
In the pharmacy poison foxglove
becomes digitalis. What can kill also heals.
The leaf that stops the heart
contains the alkaloid that slows
and strengthens it.
