A Poem Traveled Down My Arm by Alice Walker Page A

with sticks and stones. Or words to that effect. Hair care was the least of it. And so his hair defines the expression “every which a way.”
    Mandela a “terrorist,” Mandela with a price on his head, or on any piece of him, in fact; Mandela in prison for twenty-seven years; Mandela with a free heart. Douglass the same: enslavement, refusal of enslavement, flight, resistance, rebellion.
Free heart.
Einstein different, but similar: He saw humanity’s enslavement to its fear of itself, where such fear would lead. Still he enjoyed some very good days.
    And so it can be with us. And so says the poem:
    Between assassination
suicide
living
happily.

1
    Because
you rubbed
my shoulder
last night
a poem
traveled down
my arm.
    Living
this year
in
disaster:
How
is
it different?
    No one
has
escaped
a
blessing.

2
    There is
no God
but
Love
Helpfulness
is
Its
name.
    Air
is God
& connects
us.

3
    Every time
you
die
you live
differently.
    You cannot
eat
money
if you could
it would
make
you
sick.
    Removing
the
boulder
reveals
the
message
underneath.
    Buddha
helps
us up
while
lying
down.

4
    The right road
disappears
beneath
our
feet.
    Goddess looks
through
your eyes
is
your hand.
    The end
is coming
yesterday
it was
here
too.
    Earth
is
too wet
to be
a
machine.
    Those
who remember
have
been touched
by us.

5
    Unload
the
useless
information
say
farewell
to
comparing
mind.
    Balance
    She is
not
dead
who left
her
giggle
in
your
empty
field.
    You will
be
tried
in the
fires
of
small talk.
    Your
suffering
from
witticisms
will
be
endless.

6
    Fifty years
to see
the flower
at
my birth.

7
    Snake
they
separated
us.
    Feed
the
stranger
under
your
coat.

8
    The dead
do not
have
long
to wait
for birth.

9
    She
comes
from
heaven
unannounced

10
    Birth
is
so
endless
    Who
dies
being
born?
    Love
your
friends.
    We do not
know
anything
think
of that.
    To remember
is
to plan.

11
    River runs
from us;
    Lake sees.
    Mind
shine.

12
    Leonard
was right
to
love
Virginia.
    Virginia
was
right
to be
insane.
    Who can
bear
to know
what evil
lurks
in our bowl
of peas?

13
    Who is
in charge
loses.
    Inflation
is
prelude.
    A million
blessings
no one
home
in us.

14
    What is
a promise
if
not
your
hand
in mine?
    Fearless
lie down
beside me
I cannot
bite emptiness.
    The straight
path
follows
an endless
curve.

15
    When we
have changed
everything
we will eat
congratulations
with
our tea.
    No one
can end
suffering
except
through
dance.
    Who dives
knows
water
ways.

16
    Why not
choose?
    What is
this
cradle
(of civilization)
    but
the
grave?
    Do not
cling
to being
lost.
    What hair
we here!
    Mandela
Douglass
Einstein
    Between assassination
suicide
living
happily.

17
    Understanding
war
I do not
harm
myself.
    The Navy
so
loud
whales cannot
believe
our
silence.
    Silent Spring
birds
even we
have lost
our
voice.
    The crushed
teapot
in
the rubbish
of the
bulldozed
house
will sing
in your
ears
forever.
    That is

the law.
    The more
intelligence
the fewer
wars
children.
    Not buying
war
grief
remains
unsold.
    Neither
the war
nor
the
infant
was sent
to save
us
from
our
fate.
    What do Indians dance

into

their dance?
    Recognize
karma
y

el

destino.
    Who taught us
to ask
for
that
which
makes
us
weep?
    Why is
Earth
saying
yes, yes
smiling?

18
    What do Africans
know
that
they
are
no longer
telling
us?
    Mother Africa

turns

her head

away:

blood on

her

head

on

her

shoe.
    She knows.
    There is
no God
but
God
who closes
windows.
    You will
long
for
me
I am
inside.
    Her world
understands
us
as
The people who eat:

They who
bring
death.
    You can buy
a piece
of
Antiquity
to impress
your
friends.
    Half of it
was
crushed to dust
by Saviors
blew
away.
    Civilization

was

an excuse.
    Of what
do
Palestinians
dream
could we
live
there?
    To live
in this world
is to accept
torture
even
of
tomatoes.
    Who knew?
    Not to have
faith—
Time is
too
long!

19
    Release
the tyranny
of
white:
    Paint your

house

to open

the heart

shelter

the soul;

eat

yams.
    Release
the