Cunning hands
One more than the other
What good work you have done
What nastiness you have caused
Helping hitting holding choking
Fingers folded in prayer
Fingers feeding my hunger
Thumbs gripping grasping
Nails tickling scratching
Finger pointing provoking
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 10, 2014
The tick that carries spotted fever
malaria that mosquitos pass
on to mere kids, and then the cancer
that twists, subverts, deforms normal cells–
who can ever say this world is good?
…
The mind that in an empty room hears
loud voices saying run, hurt, be bad
not good, rape, kill, then die yourself. Fears
are all around. There is no hope left.
…
We can be as deformed as our world.
…
Can someone befriend us when bereft?
Join us with our demons in the cold?
Maybe not help us to understand
evil all around, but hold our hand?
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 7, 2012
Views from the Edge 