Bursting forth everywhere as this
lesser evil that just wants to become
a resurrected republic which is some
how shaking off the imperial chains

To bring us from the 3 hit execution
in high back electric chair of poor old
Ethel Rosenberg to the place we all get
arrested for protesting against genocide

In Gaza of all the most definitely deadly
places the largest ever outdoor prison
become dehydrated famine starvation
camp of death being pushed out to the

Desert of our flat washed out empathy
our mass media mediated dry emptiness
stretching away there behind the head
of decapitated Statue of Liberty floating

Away out in the distant coarse salty waves
looking back at us just questioning Reality.

 

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.