Protesters tear down Confederate monument in Durham, NC

There’s something about the sole of a shoe
stomped down on a newly toppled memorial statue

torn off a pedestal by an enraged, empowered crowd,
that’s had enough, over and over again, something

resounding about the empty sound of tennis shoe toes
bouncing off a brass face, eyes and cheeks,

a heel thumping on the crumpled chest of the hollow soldier
whose imagined and hijacked image never chose to stand

for decades on behalf of a continued lost cause,
something about how the pent up air of history hisses

as it tries escaping the cracked limbs and failed ankles,
how lightly the dragging line slips round the metal neck

before the countless hands take hold and pull.

 

Larry D. Thacker’s poetry can be found or is forthcoming in over a hundred publications including The Still Journal, Poetry South, Tower Poetry Society, Mad River Review, Spillway, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Mojave River Review, Town Creek Poetry, Jazz Cigarette, and Appalachian Heritage. His books include Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia and the poetry books, Voice Hunting, Memory Train, and Drifting in Awe.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer,photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows bothin the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Pollock-Krasner grants, the Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grant and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc.