deb y felio: in response to Melinda Luisa de Jesus

in response to ""hay(na)ku brainwash" (2018) by Melinda Luisa de Jesus

I’m Not There

Again

erasing myself

from world history

yet

always apologizing

for others’ atrocities.

When

will there

be true community?

Forgiveness

and acceptance

planted /growing together,

resentment

weeded out

to prevent choking

efforts

of reconciliation

with one another.

One

more time—

I’m so sorry.

*****

deb y felio is a witness poet exploring and writing on the mundane, the miraculous and the under-represented sides of historic and current issues. deb lives and writes in the hills of Boulder, Colorado and is active in the Denver Lighthouse for Writers and the Stain’d art community. Her work is published in multiple online sources (Poet for a Day, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, With Painted Words, Quatrain, +others) and in the print anthology Hay(na)ku 15 (Eileen Tabios, editor) and Minnie’s Diary (October 2018).