(Rhyming Sestina)
by Pamela Toomey
You in or out? Just play the hand you’re dealt for want Of legs shackled to the ship’s floor. The ribbed jester Coasts on the back of the black man’s labor, his haunt Familiar ground to cuff linked hopes that fester And form into chain-linked chain gangs raised to taunt The “in” club: the incarcerated protester. Out standing on the stacked deck, the protester, Severed steward of the earth’s ransacked heart, in want Of a home, lays a trail of salt tears to fester In Georgia’s mind. Gold rush at fever pitch to taunt Indigenous love for sacred ground. Greedy jester Flaunts the Indian Removal Act, familiar haunt – Old stomping ground explodes into granite shards that haunt And hail exploited labor: Pacific protester, Nitty-gritty, nitroglycerin, noxious taunt; Asian spade, inured, links the oceans for the jester. Hand played: full house; Chinese Exclusion Act in want Of victims: railroaded, lynched, strange fruit left to fester And fold like a house of cards amassed to fester Anew: massacre to mass deportation, old haunt – Same tracks; treason the debunked reason the jester Invokes Japanese Internment. Stricken by want, Stripped of home, yet still undaunted, the protester Bides these false premises garbed in barbed wire that taunt Yo-o-o-o-u’re out! Three-strike law earns one life sentence, a taunt Wound hand in glove with Jim Crow’s crowd, but hard to fester With Hammerin’ Hank on deck, Brave slugger in want Of access to Georgia’s ballot box. That protester Eschewed the need to steal home or vote or life; his haunt The diamond, not the Gold Spa of the gun-packing jester. Here’s the deal: Stop All Hate Crimes now; thwart the jester By Building Back Better; don’t settle for détente; MLB didn’t balk but yanked the big game. Protester, Hit For The People Act out of the park and no haunt Of voter suppression will thrive and fester. Bat clean-up for the Jobs Plan, union jobs to counter want And dress our EARTH in clean air, clean water, no want Unaddressed to all but the HATER, our jester In our HEART; let’s redress our fault and supply a safe-haunt.