Fear

It is the poets who run toward fear.
They are what we read,
think and speak,
fighting for greater possibilities
than the words of tabloids and broadsheets where
Texas and London compare notes as
cries of 9/11 loudly emerge out of context
connected to dust on the throats of
authority and might disguised
as camouflaged revenge in the night
from small heads of an imperial
news speak.
Back page the greed of Enron, WorldCom
and Halliburton. Clustered
vampires needing fresh blood
rally against a mosquito whose flesh
is dark and oily, slippery and deadly
as our homeland colors are manipulated
between yellow, orange, red and re-election.

Madhubuti, Haki R. Run Toward Fear: New Poems And A Poet’s Handbook. Chicago, IL: Third World Press, Inc., 2004.