"Walking matches amidst so much gasoline"

Tim Woodcock writes: To return to the theme of the previous blog post about “Poems of hope and resilience,” I was struck by the power of Francisco X. Alarcon’s “L.A. Story.” The context that gives rise to that poem is the Rodney King protests, referred not by name but simply by the date – April 1992 - that is attached to the poem. But the poem reads almost as well in the context of Ukraine or any other situation of high volatility.

The poem is not a complex one. It paints a bleak, dystopian landscape, followed by this beautiful image:

o god

show us

the way

lead us

 

spare us 

from ever

turning into

walking 

 

matches

amidst

so much

gasoline

 

 


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