“Medieval artists made no distinction between past and present.” – Barbara W. Tuchman
– after Tyarah Yambo’s image Ratamundo
“Charity be dead,” I note the day
the black flag be raised above our church.
This, to you, be our warning to stay away.
We cannot serve you. Our future be breached.
The town be quiet. It, too, invisible.
The wind erase our footprints. Our eyes
before they close at last be miserable
with disease. Don’t look upon us else you died.
The town be safe. Every plagued soul be died
but me. I talk with ghosts from the buried
and the yet buried. On that church window
I paint a rat. I lower the flag tomorrow.
The town be history. I write its grief with shit
on our flag I wrap me in when I cough regret.
For twenty-two years, Tom Holmes was the founding editor and curator of Redactions: Poetry & Poetics. The final issue was released in July 2024. 😦 He is an Ace writer, who teaches at Nashville State Community College (Clarksville). Blog, The Line Break: thelinebreak.wordpress.com/. Twitter: @TheLineBreak
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