The Marbled Sigh

Learning to Walk, Trump Elected, 2024

There is a way to walk

to unclench your fists

and move your jaws

freely, like water;

there must be a way to walk

when the body, a coffin,

lifts the lid

and sees the world

a desert of corruption

laws

like litter on the street;

there are 

secrets in the shadows

beneath the mountain of lies—

light

you must listen to

the music of monologue

a voice which says:

there are songs

of stillness and beauty

a sunset to take to sleep with you,

so in the morning

the fog can lift—

even a little—

to notice the smallest smile

from the sun.

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Pamela L. Laskin is the former director of the Poetry Outreach Center, and published author of three young adult novels and five books of poetry. She is currently at work on a book of blogs: “SHADES OF SWEETNESS AND SORROW FROM A SENIOR BLOGGER.”