Ruby M. Harmon

SPARSE

Their hands
A hundred
Reached up
Above the bellies
Swollen with hunger
And want
Clothed in clean
Tattered garments
Barely uttering words
For the sound of their action
Lingered deafeningly
Amidst the flies
Swarming in the brutal
Scorching heat
Their faces gaunt
With eyes deep and piercing
And hair reddened

Sparse

As the necessities
That all should have

The twenty would lessen
Their hunger
Only temporarily
Though the image
Would stay
Permanently affixed

© 2004 RM Harmon, Balancing Act

RHETORIC

You say we are brethren
And yet, your face betrays your spoken words

Our existences are parallel
Despite the synchronicity of our struggles
You speak as though words
        have lifted you to a higher stratum
Patronizing monologues that profess to
        effect change

But do you listen to the words that tumble from
        your lips?

In one setting, your essence resonates
        A chord all too familiar
In another, your chameleon traits
        Conceal your two-faced nature

What have you become?
As you desire to ascend, escape . . .
. . . the core of your very being?

© 2003 RM Harmon, Poetic Moves While Doctoring (Vols. I & II)

HE AND SHE (II)

I watched as they walked hand in hand
Almost two centuries between them

Her hat shielding her from the truth of age
His cane bespeaking volumes

They laughed,
Only they knew what private joke
lay between them

Taking slow deliberate steps
Chancing a fall

But, oh, what the hell
Life had to be lived

Proudly, as others watched
They continued their strides

Having made a date
. . . for pizza

© 2003 RM Harmon, Poetic Moves While Doctoring (Vols. I & II)

EGGPLANT TO SUGARCANE

Though one experience defines us
No one experience describes us
People colored in myriad hues
Eggplant black to sugarcane cream
Eyes – midnight chocolate to aqua blue
Payless to Prada-wearing

Intellectualizing or jiving
Goal-directed to goal abandoned
Words, language – vai to hebrew
Papiamento to drawl, southern
Attitudes pompous to reticent and meek
Education – life to youth – degrees abundant

Global representatives
So many differences
Despite our birthrights
We are more similar

Simply, people striving, living connected
Currently, in this space familiar
We call earth

©2003 RM Harmon, Poetic Moves While Doctoring (Vols. I & II)