Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Eva Yaa Asantewaa
50 years old
New York, NY
Eva Yaa Asantewaa is a freelance dance critic, poet, psychic counselor, and community educator in New York City. She was most recently published in An Eye for An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11 (Regent Press).
tenebrae
1
the stars call earth “little sister,” and they stoop to draw out her halo of thorns:
one coyote has been lashed to a fence by the road; another, dragged behind speeding wheels; one riddled by bullets in a vestibule no bigger than a cage,
and the angel cries, “little sister, what are your troubles?”
“mass graves for my dead and mass graves for my living who might as well be dead.”
and the angel cries, “why have you forsaken me?”
and the angel cries, “...for this is my body, and i have given it for you...”
“why have you forsaken me... for i have given your body to you, and given you to one another?”
and the angel cries, “what part of love don’t you understand?”
when the angel removed arrows from st. sebastian, she rubbed sweet balm of gilead along his wounds, and when she moved her hands ever so slowly along his burning skin, behold! no scar.
making love is like manna. making love... roll the stone away. now, the sea has closed behind us.
making love is milk and honey. making love is grace and absolution.
jesus said to his beloved john, please spend this night awake with me.
3
“why have you forsaken me? ...for this is my body, and i have given it for you... why have you forsaken me... for i have given your body to you, and given you to one another. what part of love don’t you understand?"
sometime sometime ago i dreamed i met j fo i don’t mean j lo baby boomers out there will know i‘m talking about jane fonda daughter of henry sister of peter barbarella cat ballou hanoi jane aerobics wonderwoman wife of ted tomahawk chopper you know j fo
so in my dream sometime ago i walked up to jane took one look at her skin said geez girl look at your tan you’re dark enough to be mistaken for black she thought that was funny i thought that was funny
in the dream i found myself preparing to speak out to a crowd as i am here with you now where else could i be?
