Emmy Veronica Sanders

From “Antagonisms”

I LISTENED to the hills as they spoke

At nightfall.

I listened to the haughty calm flowing of line speech,

And to vehement words

Jagged and bitten into the sky face.

I saw hieroglyphs scrawled on a pale wall of sky

With fingers of granite.

There was motion gripping the masses

Urging and waving

Onward.

I heard cadences of hill speech

Falling and rising

Softly,

With soothing interference.

And there was one standing alone on the smoldering horizon,

Standing aloof and detached

Always;

Saying “I” and “I” and “I,”

Answering “No” and “No” and “No”—

Always—

To the biting words and to the flowing line speech,

And to the hieroglyphs scrawled with fingers of granite.

There was one

Saying “No”

To the dull gray abysses

Of sky and of sea—

Saying “No”

To the masses….