(It’s outwardly peaceful on our streets tonight, isn’t it? But, at 1:30 a.m., this poet’s targeting team has not so far allowed her any sleep at all, nor presently seem disposed to do so for the remainder of the night.)

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Recorded Reading (1:56): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wl6o4upni2yw0sy3jgvce/If-They-Thought-They-Could.mp3?rlkey=wg36vfw85979a70mbu2gbwc4c&dl=0

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If They Thought They Could

There are prisons and then prisons
There are wars and there are wars
No one talks too much about
What goes on behind closed doors

A door’s as locked and chained
From inside out as outside in
If one has been by terror trained
Toward it never to begin

Start outside of any home
Rich, poor, learned, ignorant
No matter, tidy or unclean,
The outer aspect it present

Progress on foot now past three more,
Your pref’rence of direction take,
For in pursuit of what we seek
Impossible ’tis to mistake —

Of four selected entranceways,
One, outwardly identical,
If it were opened suddenly,
Would lead us into someone’s hell

To our dreadful ignominy
In fully twenty five percent
Of homes, one cringes warily
Another’s anger to prevent

One in four passing on the street
(Their income matters not a whit)
One in four at the office meet
Held forth at luncheon with their wit

One in four whose numb hearts may
As well be made of deadened wood
One in four who’d hurt you too
If they thought they could

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This poet is physically disabled. Public housing being insufficient to her medical and creative needs, she is presently living, in order to continue working, in her minivan, publishing all of her works using one thumb on the touch screen of her smartphone, surviving at an income of a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. She would treasure any donation you might care to offer ~ http://www.UgiftABLE.com ● #72D-31S.

Please be aware that it takes several days for the poet to be notified of contributions. International contributors please contact the poet via email or post a comment for the necessary numbers.

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