Scissors To Cut Air
some among them imagine/
they are sensible/ are civil/ are in their right minds/
within their rights/ to take up/ to take away
everybody's space/ fill every ear up/ take up all the air/
use up all the oxygen with their music/
their taste/ their thing/
has it not dawned on them/
other people are other than themselves/
with desires as important as theirs/
though they know you cannot build upon
someone else's lot or land/ erect a tent even/
do not see how similarly wrong it is/
to hog the air/ the atmosphere/
hog the bed shared with siblings/
you could get kicked on the floor/
don't see or comprehend/ space is to be shared/
out of your skin/ besides yourself/
looking for trouble/
what is us/ what is ours and where/ is in our skin/
space beyond is shared space/
go to see a film/ we get a ticket for a seat/
don't these noise makers among us realize/
space is precious/ space is shared/ not theirs/
as criminal is government/ is police/
we put in place and pay/ to enforce/ to ensure
no one's rights are violated/ no one is robbed/
have to go into a store with a gun/
before dumb police realize/ a crime's been committed/
government members in the suburbs/ away from it all/
the masses/ the people/ on top of each other/
with lessons to learn/
no one to teach them/ at home/ at school/ at church/
only this poem/ this poet/
out on the street/ who teaches cuts throats/
we're at their mercy
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:10 p.m. 7/July/07
some among them imagine/
they are sensible/ are civil/ are in their right minds/
within their rights/ to take up/ to take away
everybody's space/ fill every ear up/ take up all the air/
use up all the oxygen with their music/
their taste/ their thing/
has it not dawned on them/
other people are other than themselves/
with desires as important as theirs/
though they know you cannot build upon
someone else's lot or land/ erect a tent even/
do not see how similarly wrong it is/
to hog the air/ the atmosphere/
hog the bed shared with siblings/
you could get kicked on the floor/
don't see or comprehend/ space is to be shared/
out of your skin/ besides yourself/
looking for trouble/
what is us/ what is ours and where/ is in our skin/
space beyond is shared space/
go to see a film/ we get a ticket for a seat/
don't these noise makers among us realize/
space is precious/ space is shared/ not theirs/
as criminal is government/ is police/
we put in place and pay/ to enforce/ to ensure
no one's rights are violated/ no one is robbed/
have to go into a store with a gun/
before dumb police realize/ a crime's been committed/
government members in the suburbs/ away from it all/
the masses/ the people/ on top of each other/
with lessons to learn/
no one to teach them/ at home/ at school/ at church/
only this poem/ this poet/
out on the street/ who teaches cuts throats/
we're at their mercy
© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
11:10 p.m. 7/July/07
posted by Obie Quiet at 10:49 PM
2 Comments:
i see the noise has angered you again..sincerest sympathies my friend
I sent this one to the prime minister, the attorney general, the commissioner of police and the editors of all our local newspapers.
Attention has to be brought to bear. I am certain these philistines using up all the oxygen militate against productivity nationally and lessen longevity nationally.
Everybody else’s, silence about these persons disturbing the peace, seem to suggest, Obediah, get over it. To get over it though would mean abandoning sensitivity to become rough and tough and as careless even as these persons themselves are.
Were this to happen to me - such a transformation - what would happen to poetry? Who would pen it then?
To hear poetry one has to listen hard; it comes all the way from heaven. All my pores turn to ears to hear what's clean and pure and lovely and along come what is like a variety of bombs falling, pounding; falling upon a hundred thousand tiny eardrums like so many toilets flushing when birds or babies had opened their mouths to be fed.
The innocent opens his hand for bread and is instead handed a serpent.
In love I reach out to neighbor, to fellow Bahamian, fellow man - to embrace him but he's covered himself in nails to hurt whose desire it is to show some love - embrace, support and be one.
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