when she asks me about courage
because you are the pot simmering
on the black steel stove—the one
my young hands were slap-trained,
by an old wooden spoon, to stop
reaching for; the moon-shaped
apple sinking into the thorny soil
of a banished garden—paradise
guarded by an angel spinning
a flaming sword; the second hearth
eyed by an anxious Prometheus—
who feels the jagged, healing scar,
hears the eagle’s closer
cry; the fiery line
best left out
of a poem
that should remain
unfinished. so my arms wrap—
my hands hold—only myself
to my chest. while yours shakes,
shivers—cold, wet from sobbing—
beside me.
Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of the Colored page. MEH’s an educator who received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. He writes about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground at www.MEHPoeting.com