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from basic needs

The talk is of a man in the desert
He killed other men and women and them in the desert
They are using the word historic to speak of him
Superlatives to speak of him
 
We know history
We know this is not what they say it is
They have a way of burying the point
The people who make a clear point
 
Who with passion until without say stop
Killing us and us in the street
In the vast deserts beyond ours
Now they are saying it is a thing of freedom
 
To say at all
But where was that the point
The small deep point is long gone now
They have asked us to change
 
What we think of
They have asked me to be a part
Of their committee on feelings
They want to know how we feel
 
How do you feel
About the benefits you have
And what you don’t have
How we maintain them for you
 
That we might change for you
I don’t know the difference
Between this and death the desert
The sound of stop of our lived reality
​
Will I remind them of desert
And street which are no metaphor
And say this is all that I mean
What will I say to the committee if
 
We cannot say politely
This was a year of great freedom
Because of great constraint
Knowing nothing more than the present
 
Longing of total
Love
With mystery
And without
Picture
Paolo Morales. Christina’s hand on the window, 2014. Archival inkjet print, 24x20 inches.

Vanessa Jimenez Gabb is the author of Images for Radical Politics, Editor’s Pick in the 2015 Rescue Press Black Box Poetry Contest. She received her MFA from CUNY Brooklyn College, and she is from and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Paolo Morales is a photographer. He was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Virginia. He received an MFA in photography from Rhode Island School of Design, attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and teaches at George Mason University and The Potomac School.
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  • Home
  • About
    • Masthead
    • Contact
  • Archive
    • Issue One
    • Issue Two
    • Issue Three
    • Issue Four
    • Issue Five
    • Issue Six
    • Issue Seven
    • Issue Eight
    • Issue Nine
    • Issue Ten
    • Issue Eleven
    • Issue Twelve
    • Issue Thirteen
    • Issue Fourteen
  • Guidelines