Hammering on Rocks
for Nelson Mandela
Hammering on rocks
can break the hammerer's back
when stooped
under the weight of identity
cards the color of scorn.
But somehow you knew
that the earth's breath
drew in and out
with the same rhythm
as your own.
Somehow you also knew
the rocks you cracked
into two decades' dust
were watering the country
who sat silently in your cell,
more a prisoner than you.
-Joseph Ross
Used by permission.
From Gospel of Dust (Main Street Rag, 2013)
Joseph Ross is the author of two collections of poetry, Meeting Bone Man (2012) and Gospel of Dust
(2013). His poetry has earned multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and
the 2012 Pratt Library - Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. His poems
appear in many anthologies and journals including Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion and Spirituality, Tidal Basin Review, Drumvoices Revue, Poet Lore, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly. In 2007, he co-edited Cut Loose the Body: An Anthology of Poems on Torture and Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib. He teaches in the Department of English at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. and writes at JosephRoss.net.
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