You Be the Judge

for Nicole Ringgold

The silversmith smiths
    at her overworked bench,
        an open secret behind garden shop walls.

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I could ask how many lovers you’ve had
    or when the last time was that you cried.
I might pry into your innermost fears
    and damage your psyche or pride.

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The morning sun reflects a hundred thousand times
    off Andalusian seas.

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The seer sat at the postern gate and
exchanged words with the pharisee thus:

Our city is strong! We are
surrounded by
the walls of salvation!

Strive to enter this narrow
door for
many who seek to will fail

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Grant me a patient story.
Read it in me slowly.
End it with a whisper
Gently calling it to rest.

What did Shackleton take his men out to see?
A frigid flag shaking in the Antarctic breeze,
Marking the most extreme point of the planet?
No, I tell you: something far greater than this.

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I hadn’t lounged there
Lazing in the sun
For more than five minutes
Before I saw her
Pawing at my leg

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We have shared so well,
you and I, from love’s deep cup,
and shall drink once more…

let us not speak of
silences so sacred they
are best unbroken