where breath failed
and tongues were tied
in ropes of persecution
dark words
caught on the lips
moistened by endless tears
rolled off the chin
filling ink-well pools
empty pens
in dehydrated hands
dipped to quench the thirst
of parched minds’ papers
leaving fluid trails
that dried
tattooed
on the skin
of humanity’s
beaten
drums
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
They swim
poor little fish
straight through the safety nets
that would hold them
in fresh water’s flow
they are too young to vote
or weave social change
into protective boundaries
They swim
through gaping holes of greed
lacking resource and means
to bind the shredded holes of ignorance
They swim
swept downstream
to river’s brackish estuary
where
the salt
through osmosis
dehydrates cells
They swim
assimilating the filth
prostitution
drug abuse
theft
abuse
bulging, murderous eyes
desperate
They swim
until
defeated
oxygen depleted
poor little fish
belly up
They float
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
what does a ban say
on a sunny Easter Day
THAT
starving children,
the moaning human refuse
collected
for posterity
in refugee wastelands
must starve
WHILE
sheltered youth,
plump and spoiled
dressed in pressed watercolors
not junk yard soiled
are allowed free run
on a White House lawn
to hunt for candy-filled eggs
what does a ban say
on a sunny Easter Day
THAT
this year
the Easter Bunny voted
rolled his eggs for Trump
WHILE
children, impoverished,
hunted meals
from the dump
what does a ban say
on a sunny Easter Day
WHAT?
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
If
If it
If it were
If it were your
If it were your children’s bellies grumbling
of course you would feed them
knead stone into bread
until your fingers bled trying
can you squeeze water from clay?
filter impurities away?
with your skin?
steal shelter from garbage bins?
build scrap-tin walls with a cardboard roof
until it rains
filling puddles with the rust
of poverty’s chains
to what land would you flee?
if bombs showered your home?
all order violently destabilized
carry your children on your back
so you might keep their dead bodies from dying
for another day or two
how much time can you purchase?
when you can’t even buy food?
If it were your children’s bellies grumbling
If it were your
If it were
If it
If
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
bleed red
the deep wounds flow
dressings stain crimson hues
from battlegrounds ubiquitous
suffering erects no bigoted walls
but into each culture’s bed climbs
disturbing the soul’s sleep
all humankind
bleed red
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Entry posted in poetry & Rictameter Verse. Bookmark the permalink.
black garbage bag tote ~
carries all life’s possessions ~
piled on refuse child
~
(Selection taken from A Haiku for Ricky Baker, on sale now. All proceeds go to fund art and writing programs for children in juvenile detention centers.)
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Entry posted in haiku & poetry. Bookmark the permalink.
plastic feet formed to fit polymer heels
lofty heights
false ideals
dance in girls’ minds
to fairy-tale tunes
flawlessly complected marketing tools
young thoughts make creative formations
of too tiny waists
and bone-thin limbs
manifested years later
in anorexic meals
and bulimic fits
to fit
lovely lies
melted years earlier in colorful molds
hardened in impressionable minds
for uniform standards
unreal
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
The St. Louis…
On May 13, 1939, the ocean liner, St. Louis, sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba. The Third Reich allowed more than 900 Jews aboard. We are counting now. When souls become quotas, numbers matter. The number was 937, most of them were German Jews. They carried what they thought were valid permits that guaranteed them temporary stay in the United States until proper visas could be granted.
The quotas…
The quotas!
The United States quotas were full.
The souls aboard the St. Louis had no clue.
The German-Austrian immigration quota for the United States allowed only 27,370 souls annually. The wait list for entry stretched for years, pages filled with longing names numbered. When souls become numbers filling quotas, what has humanity left to do but count? So we counted them. Number one got in. Number 27,371 did not. She received a free train ride out of Germany to a place called Auschwitz that reeked of smoke and shit and death, where she was given a new number. She died in a gas chamber and was burned to ash. We are counting now. She took her place among six million dead.
That was Europe, the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The St. Louis safely reached Cuba, where 29 Jews were allowed to disembark. Cuba had immigration quotas too. We are counting now. 29 souls found a refuge. The ship was ordered out of the harbor in Havana. To be sure that number 30 didn’t sneak in, Cuban police boats followed the St. Louis. Several passengers attempted to commit suicide.
For three days, the St. Louis drifted off the coast of Miami, close enough to see that city’s sparkling lights. Pleas went out via cables from the ship. President Franklin D. Roosevelt never responded. The White House never responded. The State Department finally sent a telegram to the ship explaining plainly that the United States had immigration quotas in place and that the souls on board would have to apply for the proper visas and take their turn on the waiting list.
The quotas…
The quotas!
The United States quotas were full.
The souls aboard the St. Louis now understood.
How did we explain to men, women and children that they were nothing more than numbers in a quota-filling game? What words of comfort did we give? Were we present when many of them were torn from their families and piled like cattle into cargo holds after their bitter return to Europe? Did we travel with them sharing their terror as they were sent to concentration camps? Did we hold their trembling hands as their flesh rotted away from starvation? Did we hear their screams? Did we see them die? They each were given a number. We are counting now. They took their place among six million dead.
We laud a statue that reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Were these not tempest-tossed? The lamp went dark, blown out by xenophobic winds.
We have recycled those winds today in the forms of quotas, restrictions, deportations, bans and walls. We fear.
Souls become numbers, leaving humanity with nothing left to do but count.
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Entry posted in short stories. Bookmark the permalink.
an oily gold rush ~
flows out from the frack-raped earth ~
Mother’s black-inked tears
~
boys rush the Bakken ~
covet all precious treasure ~
shatter the girls’ gems
~
when Females are raped ~
shouldn’t all be shocked and wonder ~
what through pipeline flows?
~
#noDAPL
(Rape and sexual assault against women and girls have skyrocketed in the communities surrounding the Bakken Oil Fields since fracking began, increasing by some estimates more than 160%. These crimes have disproportionately impacted Indigenous females who live on the area’s reservation.)
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in haiku & poetry. Bookmark the permalink.
how can we build a wall high enough to keep “evil” out?
with children’s buckets of sand
stolen by the kindergarten bully,
a molded garrison
wet with their tears –
youth’s hording
mockeries
or
with sticks and stones
and mountains of bones
of broken bodies
decayed on the ground –
states’ colonizing
batteries
with bricks and mortar
mixed with the ashes
of cremated remains
from gas-filled
sorting-house
factories
it sounds simple
like child’s play –
steal from one
allow another to
horde
colonize
sort
and
construct
a wall built high
I think when he says, “keep ‘evil’ out”,
he really means,
fence
it
all
in
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me.
Posted in poetry & free verse. Bookmark the permalink.
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