Peter Keep him safe oh You Who Save, my son up on the barricades who took my ‘60’s stories home and stands against the gloriers in the standard hate the usualness the greed he could read before he walked and now he marches balking not an inch at 6 feet tall a target unrepentant and I worry. Should I have spent those childhood walks imparting Shakespeare or Godot not Abbie Hoffman and Rousseau he stands above me in so much more than height he’s riding on a bus tonight to meet equality’s enemies at some counter- demonstration, for safety asked me not to come. Stand by him exonerate me too who adores him more than nation cause or You.
Wayne-Daniel Berard, PhD, teaches Humanities at Nichols College, Dudley, MA. He publishes broadly in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. His poetry chapbook, The Man Who Remembered Heaven, received the New Eden Award in 2003. His non-fiction When Christians Were Jews (That Is, Now), subtitled Recovering the Lost Jewishness of Christianity with the Gospel of Mark, was published in 2006 by Cowley Publications. A novel The Retreatants, was published in 2012 (Smashwords). A chapbook, Christine Day, Love Poems, was published in 2016 (Kittatuck Press). His novella, Everything We Want, was published in 2018 by Bloodstone Press. A poetry collection, The Realm of Blessing, was published in 2020 by Unsolicited Press.
Amethyst Review 