The Faint Rumble

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
~Martin Luther King Jr.

photo by Eric Heupel

Brenda shared this poem from the Summer Poem Swap a while back and I had the urge to share it again this week.

Crow’s report from the White Witch’s courtyard
by Tabatha Yeatts
for Brenda

[Edmund] saw that there were dozens of statues all about…They all looked so strange standing there perfectly life-like and also perfectly still, in the bright cold moonlight, that it was eerie work crossing the courtyard.
~The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

this wind-follower, tree-singer
shackled in stone
has roused from sleep
to scan the state of the world:

    caw, wish I could squint
against the light
glinting off frozen larch-girls,
twiggy hands hiding their faces,
and round-bellied
beavers, caught in mid step.

    can't look up at the sky
but there's naught I would change
of the flights I risked,
the songs I revealed
that landed me here.

    does anyone seek
    to save us?

    though the snow is soft,
its reflection blinds me
much as the statues,
    and I think of sleep again.

    hear I the faint rumble of the
    wheels of justice     turning
    in the distance?

    in my mind,
    my outstretched wing
        points to a future

where the wand bearer's power
is snapped,
    where the sun's breath
        touches our upturned faces,
            and our colors flame again.

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TeacherDance has the Poetry Friday round-up today. Thanks, Linda!