imagine ~
if the obese worm
of bigotry
could be contained
in a chrysalis
there
forced to change
or starving die
might emerge
life’s
liberated
butterfly
~
Words and Photography ©2018 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.
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.
silk from bud blossomed ~
unfolds Mother’s great yearning ~
all children so clothed
~
Words and Photography ©2017 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in haiku & poetry. Bookark 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.
Weep, clouds, and join my sadness
in
clear,
melancholy
drops
that
trickle
and
channel
and
flow like rivers into puddles
with
no
warming
ray
of
sunshine
to
cause their shimmering sparkle
of
fluid
to
dance
like
a
mountain
jeweled
creek
running
on
a
cloudless, blue-skied day
No, let them drop to the ground
and
moody
stay,
flat
and
grey
mirrors
reflecting
inverted
perverted
realities
back to the sympathetic skies
that
respond
by
pouring
out
a
concurring
symphony
of
rhythmic
drops
that
vibrate the mirrors
in
continuously pulsing ripples
distorting
the
mourning
view
that
make
them/me
cry
endlesss
clear
melancholy
rivers
of
drops
I salt-season the parched ground at my feet
where
multitudes
of
bare
starving
hurting
neglected
iron-pierced
feet
tread
mingling their bleeding blood
in
my
salty
river’s
flow
making cracked-skin soothing mud
that
poor
moms
will
form
into
cakes
to
fill
the
bellies
of
their
screaming
young
ones –
a
blood/bread
communion
of
the
rag-covered
despondent
forsaken
saints
HYPOCRITES
but let the little children come to it
anyway
and
do
not
hinder
them,
for
their
bellies
rumble
empty
and
their
bones
show
that
they
need
some
mass
to
fill
them
even
if
it
be
no
more
than
the
tear
mingled
bloody
mud
at
my
feet
I
weep
and
salt-season
the
parched
ground
at
my
iron-pierced
weary
feet
Weep, clouds, and join my grief
~
Words and Photography ©2016 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in human need & poetry. Bookmark the permalink.
Why is it
that
food fit for your garbage bin
should be a poor child’s manna?
cans crushed and dented
as if they had once been
the subject
of vigorous
street kicking games
Your “donation” is insane
Ever
hear
of
botulism?
Yes, Scrooge, reduce the
surplus
population
cans missing labels
as if this is a game
of guessing
the
mystery
food being served
Your “donation” is absurd
Ever
hear
of
food allergies?
Right, Dad Bunker, ‘cuz
WASP’s sting
the poor in Queens
cans long past their date
as if antiquities
well-preserved
of
grocery stores
now gone defunct
Your “donation” will be junked
Ever
hear
of
bacteria
Fine, Uncle Vernon, leave
Harry
all the rottings
Why is it
that
food fit for your garbage bin
should be a poor child’s manna?
and
While you are at it,
please
tell me
what child wants canned
alligator
meat
for dinner?
Words and Photography ©2016 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in human need & poetry. Bookmark the permalink.
—
The first time my older boys helped with a post office food drive through the local food pantry, they returned indignant at the volume of waste “donations” they had to sort through and discard. Many of those cans were years past date, severely damaged and unlabeled; and, yes, canned alligator meat was on the menu. A food pantry drive isn’t the time to clean the junk out your kitchen. Real people depend on food pantries as a stop-gap measure against malnutrition and starvation. Please fill the donation bags full but only with items you yourself would consume. For those of you partial to canned alligator meat, I apologize and cringe.
If tears become letters and days turn to pages,
then how would you read his 30 days HARD labor
for fishing
on a lake
Superior
in size, depth, clarity and stock?
30 pages: no novel, just a long chapter.
What filled his kids’ bellies? Not fish that their dad caught
by fishing
on a lake
Superior,
while he worked HARD in the chains.
30 eagles swoop down and catch fish with talons.
Carry them to high nests and fill eaglets’ bellies
through fishing
on a lake
Superior.
Bites HARD: Birds eat while children starve.
—
Dedicated to the memory of John Blackbird, an Ojibwe arrested in 1901 for fishing with nets in Bear Trap Creek deep inside reservation lands that border Lake Superior, though some state histories record that he was arrested fishing on the lake. Either way, he was within his rights established through treaties with the U.S. Government.
He served 30 days HARD labor after refusing to pay a $36.75 fine. His case was eventually heard in U.S. Federal Court, the first challenge to a long battle in Wisconsin over the recognition of Indian Nation hunting and fishing rights established through treaty with the Federal Government. The Federal Court overturned the state decision in Blackbird’s favor in a ruling that honored negotiated rights with the Ojibwe Nation. The battle for the recognition of Native American treaty rights and the protection of their lands and resources continues to be fought across America today, eating up precious dollars that would be better utilized to improve the lives of these people in some of the poorest places in this country. Bites HARD.
Words and Photography ©2016 Tanya Cliff ~ to contact me
Posted in poetry, noDAPL & human rights. Bookmark the permalink.
~
For background on the Dakota pipeline controversy, read: my post from 09/09/2016
Update: Late Friday afternoon, a Federal Court judge ruled against the Dakota tribes, allowing the bulldozing to continue. The Obama Administration quickly stepped in, blocking construction on the portions of the pipeline that cross federal lands, at least temporarily protecting the Missouri River where it enters the Standing Rock Reservation and ancient Sioux burial grounds in the area.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-nativeamericans-idUSKCN11F2GX
Bites HARD:
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/10/breaking_arrest_warrant_issued_for_amy
