Hatred

Prompt: Respond to “Watching you hold your hatred” by Alice Walker

(from: Hard Times Require Furious Dancing)

Attitude and feelings can become very solid-

like a ball and chain

They take a concerted effort

for maintenance

Staying mad is like bad wine

turned to vinegar-it will

never be wine again

Is carrying hatred like

being mean to the bone?

Does it coagulate in the joints

causing rigidity?

Or does Rigidity invite

Hatred in?

Do Forgiveness and Hatred

know each other?

Have they ever even met?

Or were they raised as siblings

and now decide to never

let their resentments die?

Ghost Town Poetry Workshop, Vancouver, WA

June 2015, RMK ©