American Roots: Moral Associations

1    Kinship: Is embarrassing the wind, Like dead black boys, Falling down from the trees, Then downstream– On their knees, Blood like, Like a rich nation. 2    Metaphor: Becomes humiliating, And clean, Ticking like a ripe machine. Do not Bend, Fold, Or mutilate me– This is your future speaking. 3    The air smells so metaphysical We have accused it– Of smog, And lost manhood, Then all ritual. 4    Whoever wrote: A view is a mountain speaking But left the introduction For the snow, And accused silence Of its soul. 5    The whole nation: Is a stanza of blackness, A huge white whale, Faith in space (Like the newspapers), And the quiet insistence We have peace, And it’s your world, brother.