While I was building neat
castles in the sandbox,
the hasty pits were
filling with bulldozed corpses
and as I walked to the school
washed and combed, my feet
stepping on the cracks in the cement
detonated red bombs.
Now I am grownup
and literate, and I sit in my chair
as quietly as a fuse
and the jungles are flaming, the under-
brush is charged with soldiers,
the names on the difficult
maps go up in smoke.
I am the cause, I am a stockpile of chemical
toys, my body
is a deadly gadget,
I reach out in love, my hands are guns,
my good intentions are completely lethal.
Even my
passive eyes transmute
everything I look at to the pocked
black and white of a war photo,
how
can I stop myself
It is dangerous to read newspapers.
Each time I hit a key
on my electric typewriter,
speaking of peaceful trees
This has been one of my favorite poems since I was 14.
I read The Handmaid's Tale and then stumbled onto this poem.
Not every stanza has 3-5 lines, but it's poetic license, you know?
It's a really good poem.
But I understand the intent of this assignment.
So I am adding a bit more to show that I understand the basics and give the intended effect.
The above was my favorite poem. Below is one of my all time favorite quotes.
"It took many years of vomiting up
all the filth I'd been taught about myself,
and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth
as though I had a right to be here."
- James Baldwin
Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son