Take It Down (Poem)

Take It Down

It will take a snip.
Go to one corner
and cut. Begin

with a red thread
and pull—gently.
First, you want to

take it apart slowly,
one long red thread
by one red thread,

calling out loud
a letter of every
name—nine more

now. Rough cloth,
it may not yield
with your next tug.

Find the thread
that holds it all
together, the heart

of a story that repeats
in our homes, our
schools, our capitals

of two-sided streets,
our separate entrances,
our safest houses

of gospel. Every
stitch made you will
want to weaken.

Hear the tear?
Now pull the cross
from its center,

the meeting place
of a long rope,
a stack of white robes,

welts on the bruised
backs, field reports
to the FBI. So many

threads of connection
to break. The deniers
are among us, still.

But the thread will give.

© 2015 Maureen E. Doallas
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Other poems in this series: "State of Affairs", "You there, on that screen", and "Crisis of Faith".