Poetry
"Figures Spread Densely Across a Target Range"
By Retta Lewis
By Retta Lewis
With strong dark lines
That weave life
Out of invisibility,
We unsettle a nation,
Unhinge a paradise.
Not viewed as more than atmosphere
In an exchange of discord,
Nor more than figures
Spread densely across a target range,
We puzzle a planet,
Trouble a universe.
But we are not the obstacles.
We perch beneath the threat of them,
As history carves out a place for us
Across a plain of competing events.
All major concerns have gone unaddressed
On the one clear path that lies ahead;
And around what we take to be our names
There has been carved a message of pain.
Already our fates appear decided.
We seem left with no choice but to battle.
No choice but to litter the landscape
With the symbols of our oppression.
That weave life
Out of invisibility,
We unsettle a nation,
Unhinge a paradise.
Not viewed as more than atmosphere
In an exchange of discord,
Nor more than figures
Spread densely across a target range,
We puzzle a planet,
Trouble a universe.
But we are not the obstacles.
We perch beneath the threat of them,
As history carves out a place for us
Across a plain of competing events.
All major concerns have gone unaddressed
On the one clear path that lies ahead;
And around what we take to be our names
There has been carved a message of pain.
Already our fates appear decided.
We seem left with no choice but to battle.
No choice but to litter the landscape
With the symbols of our oppression.
