If, Sky
       

Wish for a working machine
and you're given a body.
Ask for options and you get
a life with no roadmap and
free will. Say, Give me a reason,
and what you get is silence
or wars continents too far away,
to care without exertion.
If you say yes to knowing,
dispossession flowers in you,
and cleaves to your progeny
for centuries. If you wish
to forget, there are pills
with mild side effects —
dreams that grab you
by the throat and pockets
of fear that separate you
from your skin. If you sing
hymns the gods of memory
might waken and strike you
with elegies for your unguarded
heart. Ask for love, and the sky
will unveil itself layer by layer,
its naked blue flame wanting
only your blindness in return.

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Copyright © 2014 Lauren K. Alleyne All rights reserved
from Difficult Fruit
Peepal Tree Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission