The Oak Tree’s Burden

Vandal Poem of the Day: November 9, 2021

 by Kamilah Aisha Moon

To Clyde Johnson, lynched August 3, 1935

Your weight
bows my branch
toward the earth

I was not made for this

I will never be the same
Bent
like a fractured
unset bone
that cannot heal straight

Gnarled in eternal nod
like your bark-colored head

So heavy
our body-breaking hour

Please
forgive me
from Starshine & ClayFind more by Kamilah Aisha  Moon at the library
Copyright © 2017 Kamilah Aisha Moon

Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books.

Published in Kamilah Aisha Moon Poems

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