Radomir Vojtech Luza

Eighth Grade

Sitting in front
I could not see faces
Behind me

Some wrapped in gray
Others bright as May
Most on delay

Words and
Guttural utterances hurled

Hit spine and
Pushed out of line

Boys from best families
With lots of money
In finest school in city

All I can find are tears
Denting cheeks like sneers

Arrows bent at tip
Like bullets

Armor pierced at heart
Like rag doll

Stomach in knots
Over disintegration
Based on alienation

Making face pall
As I thought I deserved it all

Not for my parents
But for me

For not fighting back or
Being free

For not believing in myself and
Wading through those
Syllables and syntaxes of
Hate with a broom

For crying alone
In bedroom

Instead of laughing together
In living room

For dying at 12
Instead of 82 and

Giving soul, goal and role away

Like game show leaving air
Barber cutting hair
Drummer giving snare
Hunter dropping bear

Writer in electric chair
Actor sending glare

For God and
What he gave me

Time and
How it saved me

Cross by cross
Nail by nail

Tooth by tooth
Beginning to end

Nothing to mend
But fate and
Its long wait

Like spies at a funeral
Friends give but do not take

One month later
I sat in back

The view better
Than crowded Seder



Time To Live

Get rid of the barricades
Put the loudspeaker in the attic
Dump the tear gas
Set fire to the rubber bullets
Just know that black lives have always mattered and
Will forever matter

It is time to live
Time to tell your truth in a voting booth
Dwell in your existence without a metaphysical distance
Put faith behind the message
While you work, sleep and go to school

The demonstrating is through
The marching is finished
The protesting is over
It is time to call it a day

And do the most difficult thing:
Live the call

In the hall
Down the mall
With no fall

Fight the good fight with
A peaceful soul
Courageous heart
Stout spirit

Sure hands
Still knees
Hive of bees

Time to live
Remembering to give
Trying to forgive