A Gray Matter

A Gray Matter

Forty miles from Baltimore to Beltway,

Burning, bricking, broken

            Spinal cords, agitators:

Protests to hot riots to anarchy.

Washington safe, weeping,

            Smoke in the eyes

Incites

Near-site.

Distant flames whip in the not-so-distant

Winds of evolution.

Baptized in wet violence,

Selma, Haymarket, Stonewall, Gettysburg.

When peace fails,

When logic fails,

When democracy fails,

When love fails.

Forty miles from Beltway to Balitmore,

Supremes dealing theory,

Arguing constitution:

Loving, Virginia, Obergefell, Hodges.

Human right, civil rights:

Old retread fronts--

Stale, stole,

Store fronts.

More than a Gray matter in Maryland:

Brains spilt, dashed: life wasted.

More than a mind exercise

For jurisprudence or social critics.

Peace must prevail.

Logic must prevail.

Democracy must prevail.

Love must prevail.

Because mere acceptance isn't enough,

Mere cohabitation a fiction.

        Civil union? Hill’s village?

Where gray pyre-smoke overcomes

Blue-greyed eyes; labored lungs.

Not black, not white,

Nor gay:

Gray love.