Poetry

“Called to Rise,” “Cartoon of the Japanese,” and “Cast+”

by Margot Block
Image
Photo by Kseniya Lapteva For Unsplash+

Called to Rise

we are called to rise when our souls awaken

collapsing over the edge of an orange sun

moving through its own heat

we awake from the deep

blue hair mussed

we are called to rise beyond the blood of the blind

truly far too late

we are called to rise

retracing classic mistakes

oceans calling us home for a salted cleanse

moving in a simple hand

writing of greens and blues

rounded dreams

simply drawn trees

a world painted in watercolor

through the crystal of one looking glass

tears running clean across a changing landscape

tomorrow we shall be called

placed by the shades of a distant sun

called by the sorrow of your eyes wide open

Cartoons of the Japanese

one thousand lists of examples paraded into conversation

who the hell is Don Marquis, anyway

your visions and dreams lined up to the stars

values you recalled important

we evade responsibility for ten centuries

and let her bleed

moment to moment

one harsh word to another

let us blunt off the topic of genocide

while you discuss the power behind the Nazi

and leave out American cartoons of the Japanese

what we leave is the calling of truth

and war is muted by a strength in numbers

that an intelligentsia guards the snake of war like ambitions

and you, Don Marquis, what do you do

Cast+

the forgotten heartaches that rest

because we can dream

when nothing of these arrivals

as they taint the earth we discover

I would have walked a thousand miles between us

I would not lift my index finger to welcome you

happier the dark whispers become what you have feared

to lie stranded

my hope erased

because your meaning is simple in its golden frame

when yesterday the sunlight was stronger

and you gave up on a promised redemption

but none of my concern

as the beauty of words are stilled

rise and cast it all like time

About the Author

Margot Block

Margot Block has been writing since the age of fourteen and has been published in Zygote Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Juice, Voices, the Collective Consciousness, Grub Street, Cholla Needles, the Black Scat Review, Blank Spaces, Bakwa Magazine, the American Diversity Report, the Lothlorien Poetry Journal blog, Rusty Truck, Literary Yard, Cajun Mutt Press, the Poppy Road Review, Dark Winter Literary Magazine, Travel Artist Hub, Voices & Visions Literary Journal, Chrysalis Art & Literature Journal, Breaking Ground, and Quail Bell Magazine. She participated in the high school mentorship program with the Manitoba Writers Guild, working with canadian poet, Carol Rose. She won first prize in a poetry contest with the Writers Collective and an honorable mention in a poetry contest with the Lake Winnipeg Writers Group.