It’s all one thing won’t go away
ALL ONE THING is here to stay
I’m now Darth Vader heavy breathing
Between pursed lips behind my masking

Helmet of pandemic imposed protections
Against revanchist reactionary rejection(s)
Desperately trying find-wind-bind our saga
Of Taoist Tai Chi or is it Christian yoga

Oh, not Yogi Berra’s chant all over again
Deja Vu rendition of what has always been
Seeming so horrible, so dread permanent
All this strife beneath swirling firmament

Just waiting to meet together in Peace
Because our one only future is Just Peace.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.