Josephine Miles - Collected Poems (1983)

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Death did not come to my mother
Like an old friend.
She was a mother, and she must
Conceive him.

Up and down the bed she fought crying
Help me, but death
Was a slow child
Heavy.

Josephine Miles

The stems of grievance put down their heavy roots
And by the end of summer crack the pavement.

Josephine Miles

What is a total mind
Fixed in a total state
But that which denies surprise
And thinks itself its fate.

Josephine Miles

We are pledged to be blind
By a totality of mind
Which has said: we shall learn what we already believe,
Study what we like,
Behoove what we approve,
Read our own creed...

Josephine Miles

They deny good luck, love, power, romance, and inspiration
From La Jac Brite ointment and incense of all kinds,
And condemn in writing skin brightening and whitening
and whitening of minds.

There is upon the federal trade commission a burden of glory
So to defend the fact, so to impel
The plucking of hope from the hand, honor from the complexion,
Sprite from the spell.

Josephine Miles

We have lost so many leaves
in loss, loss, loss
Out of the sky,
What shall we do for shelter to live by?

Josephine Miles