they say:
– Martin was a true philanderer – Bob and Marvin, too
– Bayard was know to dilly-dangle bits of sons (& not just men)
– Gil stitched needles like Trane when American lies were too much
– Ntozake & Michelle W. drank away the vitriol over their truths
– Billie would have said that’s how she softened the lies
– Josephine and Nina left America to survive the lies
– Phyllis and Toni Cade sought to escape life and its lies
– Malcolm lied to hide lovers in testosterone from his wife
– Angela lied to hide the same in estrogen from her mama
they say.
*
as God is their witness
my sins can not judge their lives
only their legacies
which, sanitized, would spoil as myth
angels might fall into screaming heat
saviors might turn to powdery mist
but these are human souls
imperfect beings with aspects that rise above
isn’t that what makes them heroes,
anyway?
*
heroes (h’irohs) n. plural:
heroes are beings who have manifested
excellence in an aspect of their lives; have
reaped of courage, passion and inspiration to
overcome, for miraculous moments,
erstwhile limitations which had shackled them,
straining, to humanity.
*
some merely hop in hero cloaks
pinned to earth by ego
too landed in themselves to soar
they thud
on those that surround
imprinting damage casting shadows
that hopeful green shoots
must strain toward the sun
to overcome.
*
yet, true heroes are always fallible
they aren’t gods
the essence which defines them
exquisite
is that even the petty/the flawed/the guilty
can leap into the breach
spin pirouettes
and rise against gravity
that even the weak
can soar into the light
and, before falling again to earth,
tenderly kiss God.
*
heroes don’t release us they remind
our struggles are not excuses
we, too, in any unlikely moment
can strap on slippers
spin atop butterfly wings
and flirt with the universe.
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