Dear Seattle,
Where do you reside?
Since you no longer work the Underground
Do you remember your Chief namesake?
You walk the slick streets,
stomping on each Tlingit whale relief,
never looking down
But you never look up, either
The City Light emblem never meets your eyes
Straight ahead you pass
by tattered tents,
calls from the wire-haired black men
whose teeth marched out of their mouths
Under bridges, disconnected from
the colors,
the mixing that’s all around
But is it?
Ads with colorful bodies
The black-and-white contours shaping
one dreamer’s face
lo, go ride a bus
Better, King County Metro
hail the newest King
We’ll Get You There
Will you? Where?
Because we confess our confusion
See you’re not so clear
It’s not the rain
No, it’s the fog,
your fear of confronting
the In Between
You think if you hold
your nose
that the stench will fade
or if you can’t smell it, the air is free
Quick construction
an address
some plaster
a patch
yet the hole’s still there
It’s the little tears
the ones ignored
that build
underground
the seams ripple
this current lives underneath
A bad taste blanketed
with a rose petal
These names intersect
with numbers
These faces link
to bodies
These people come
from places
We all began
We begin
We’ve begun
this conversation
doesn’t have to feel
like a
confrontation
But it will
Because when you
neglect
to stir the batter
dry and wet don’t mix
yellow egg sits atop white,
waiting
Raw by definition is an
uncooked state
unpalatable
unapproachable
undone
Put your defense away
Sit your haunches down
Open your ears
Let’s talk about
where we’ve been
where we wish we were
where we want to go
Not just because of
the birthday of a King
Not just because it’s
a nod at the news
More.
Because there’s much more
to life, love, liberty
than a four-letter word
that we associate with face
with appearance
with what seems to be
Like lines on a map
we intertwine
we blur when we meet
So climb down from your
Smith Tower
come take a ride
leave behind your
uncertain aggression
And let’s go search, together
for the place
for the world
where we want to live…
—Joy Stoffers, Festival Blogger