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HOVEL OF HEAVEN (library of Congress)~ By Dennis Reed

11/23/2021

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I have found another sanctuary
amid Congress,

Democratic art
beautiful hips

Capital Hill women
walking to the subway

for walk,
their hands, at their sides,

waving goodbye.
there is a slight

breeze this morning
as I sit among

the great philosophers,
champions of imagination

and thought,
one wonders

what I am doing here
in this august hall?


writing tales
of those that died on the corner,

voluntary suicides,
shadows

that will not heal
or move away,

where else should I
be, again at the seat

of government
power,

scribbling poems while
Governors are pontificating

repeating words
under emblems,

He did not want to say
anything too authentic

correct but not the
speech I wrote for


Martin Luther King week, at Virginia Union University
“the speech was eloquent/and you are fired.”

endure America,
they take our little

droplets of blood
killing us

with what we do not know,
like the thousands of

death threats
for Lt. Governor Wilder

I saw them one day,
on a pristine mahgony table

stacked neatly
ungrammatical threats

of taking him “behind the tool shed
and doin to him what he did to white girls like Klugie.”

there is always
ugly underbelly,



stinking, threatening
destroy

the sweet scents
of progress,

from destroying
flowers, children

everything above
people need sanctuaries,

places where there
is nothing

thought and air,
allowing ideas

to somersault
replace Gothic images

of houses without doors,
hinges without foundations.


Author Bio:
In a few months, OLYMPIA press will publish SELL THE TEAM, a critique of the last twenty one years of the New York Knicks. Next year, OLMPIA press will publish GUERILLA WARFARE, a novel by Mr. Reed. His memoir, MIGRATION MEMORIES was awarded the NORTH STREET/BOOK OF THE YEAR/ Honorable Mention Award this year and has a semi-finalist in the NCTE/NORMAN MAILER High School Teachers' Non-Fiction Award. Born in Manhattan, New York, attended NYC Public Schools and was awarded the Jean S. Grossinger Award for the best English student in middle school. Graduate of Long Island University in Journalism, VCU, an M.A. in English/English Education and doctoral work in contemporary drama at Georgia State University.
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