"THIS IS THE YEAR
WHEN DARKSKINNED MEN
LYNCHED A CENTURY AGO
RETURN TO SIP COFFEE QUIETLY
WITH THE APOLOGIZING DESCENDANTS
OF THEIR EXECUTIONERS"
-Martin Espada, "Imagine the Angels of Bread"
I have seen them
these Ebony
ghosts
I have heard
the clinking of coffee mugs
the gurgling of
green juice
over ice in extravagantly molded
plastic
I watch some of the mleave
Noting the squeal of tires
and the leonine
exhausts
of high-priced
Eurosport cars
and wonder
is it settled
But even then
I see
the blood in the streets
and the pic-nics
beamed via satellite on HDTV
screens
I see
that not all come
peaceably
Some have even thought
to replicate - with machetes - the
former patterns of rope
On the necks of
women
they claim to love
And the apologies
I hear
ring hollow
like the
Deco moulding on hillside
greathouses
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