Gee, heh, d’ya think I could get away with sounding like my favorite media star if I practice it on that defenseless loser right there…?

*****

Recorded Reading (2:47): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/udwdlayluxj7iqc4k5twy/make-me-your-villain.mp3?rlkey=v95dforbqck20xsibvvumit5u&dl=0

*****

make me your villain

you gonna make me
your villain today?

need something — anything
which you can say

to justify your
favorite tone of voice?

do i seem to you
a convenient choice

someone you think
hasn’t got much defense

with which your despisal
to recompense?

after all, if you search in
your memory

it’s just as mistaken
you’ve been priorly

as anyone here — as
deluded, you see —

just as amoral,
betraying just

as they betray,
for advantage or lust,

confusion or money
or anything other

would make them backstab
undeserving brothers

or mothers, or natives
or prisoners, trees,

females, or aught other
diversities

grandparent, animal,
waterway, child

anything vuln’rable,
tender or wild

or just undeserving
of treatment unjust…

have you never been cowardly?
ungenerous?

of course you have, brother —
that’s all of us

would you like me to stand
as you’re standing now

in sharp accusation,
tell everyone how

when and where in the past
you’ve fallen short

taken the craven
conven’ient resort?

of course you don’t want me to,
certainly shouldn’t

you know you can trust that
it’s something i wouldn’t

so here is the question
i’m asking you:

why do you do it
this person unto?

the key’s, of course, you
learning to forgive you —

when you see yourself
high and low as another

you’ll loosen that need
to lecture your brother

on his shortcomings
and turn to your own

you’re never unwitnessed
you’re never alone

the moments may pass
but each word and gesture

you make, to awareness,
thereafter’s a lecture

about present progress
on that worthy road of

creation of self
worthy of your self-love

oh, it’s a process
we all go through

not single to me
not single to you

but when we at last
learn to fully forgive

we learn how to live,
we learn how to let live

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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