Poetry

Gage Skidmore photo

By

R.L.M. Cooper

How Long?

How long until this nightmare’s past?

This embarrassment, this cast

Of deepest black upon our heads,

Before the reason’s put to bed?

How long the shame that we must bear

Not only here but everywhere

While in the People’s own House struts

A self-crowned king of cruellest smut?

How long the boasting and the lies?

How long the deafness to the cries

Of children ripped from home and bed,

And our black citizens shot dead?

How long suppression of our vote?

How long can we remain afloat

Behind our patriotic pins

And flags unfurled to hide our sins?

How long the prancing, sad pretense

Of love of God and eminence?

How long this comedy of pain

Until this nation’s whole again?

R.L.M. Cooper

RLM Cooper is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her short stories have been published by several online magazines and reviews and she has recently completed a novel in the thriller genre and is working on a sequel. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a very precocious Tonkinese cat. For links to her other work, please visit her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/rlmcooper or her blog: https://rlmcooper.wordpress.com