Sunday, June 2, 2013

Summer Sonnet 4: Domestic Violence

Frantic late night calls seeking my shelter:
an irate father is going to kick him out.
Punches, choking, and a violent helter,
unsettling silence leaves me in doubt.

"Everything fine now" he's meekly profuse.
Cornered later at a party, to a few
he confesses to paternal abuse
and laments that there's nothing to do.

"Call the cops!" He frowns away the idea.
He's a powerless, poor, gay, immigrant
kicked and cowering with no peer,
seen by his family as defectively bent.

As we talk his eyes get a vacant look,
naive advice filed to an unread book.

-By Aurin Squire

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Thank you, Morgan Jenness. Rest in Peace.

 "You need to meet Morgan!" At different times throughout my early NYC yrs ppl would say that to me: meet Morgan Jenness. She was ...