from "Leaving Behind"
       

3

door to door the angel no the Lord
passed or did not pass—
the angel opened the prison
door      doors to pass through, out
or in: our millions, more than any—
in the other story the Lord
said: to put a difference between

4

between one and another
a gun: at one end it's a good
gun because at the other's a cell
phone pill bottle toy gun nothing a
Trayvon      Tamir      Dontre      Michael
Laquan      Eric      Rekia      John:      call
them out and the others, Black and many

5

many thousand gone      no
more auction block      slaves gone
up north where I am going
again, coppery oak leaves holding
on, overlaid with gold, then just rust
above the skeletal gray ...
chains gone, or gone before, more—

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Copyright © 2018 Martha Collins All rights reserved
from Night Unto Night
Milkweed Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission