Tag Archives: poem

Gray-White Geese

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

Put your arms around me
to keep the desert winds
from blowing through me.

Now!

As the snow clouds have gathered
like gray-white geese
gathering on water.

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To the Innocent

For Troy Davis

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

I hope you are
in a place
where there is justice,

where there is love
unconditionally,
the end

where young men
no longer are lynched
by ropes,
or the machinations of killers,

where there is light
and not the suffocating,
ethered mud,

a place where you will
rise above humanness.

I hope you are in a place
called Justice,
a place that will never be named
Georgia.

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The Bell

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

I heard
a temple bell
far away—
a deep rich
summoning voice.

Then
a medicine man
came to my bed,
beating the air
around my feet
and head,
beating the cobwebs
of sadness stretched
over me.

A dream.
I know because
the dog did not stir.

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The Move

by Ethel Mortenson Davis

They packed
the odds and ends
of the house in the car—
along with the plants and dog.
She wanted to leave
at noon, but he wanted
more time to say goodbye
to his friends.

They left at 6.00 P.M.
No one was there
to say goodbye
after twenty-five years.

They pulled out onto the Interstate
towards Duluth–a six hour drive.
They waved goodbye
and also said some
“Good Riddances”
to “Their Town.”

A semi was following
behind them
and pulled up alongside.
He rolled down his window
and hollered, “Goodbye”—
Then waved again.

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