John Stetson Poet Free verse

In Your Name

A two year old represents herself.  Is this a court of law?
"What is your name?"  (pronunciation's magisterial)
She doesn't move, she doesn't cry, no tremble in her jaw
There in her seat, she swings her feet...  unresponsive is the rule
It's as though she doesn't understand what's going on around her
Like this was some cruel trickery intended to confound her
What's in a name? Is this a game?  Who's making up these rules?
Representation, reprehensible from those who've staked their claim
And ev'rything that's done here's done as though it's "In Your Name"

The caterpillar crawls along the leaf from egg to stalk
A journey just the start of a new leaf along this walk
Black and yellow segments leaving no track neath its feet
Three thousand miles before this odyssey will be complete
A migrant moving north to south when it has gained its wings
Generations moving north on milk for queens and kings
The Caterpillar crawls down from the lowboy on the ramps
Each track will leave a track as all will fall before its tramps
And the wall these tracks are making they are making "In Your Name"

The bombs rain down on desert that's been fought over for years
Since the time of Abraham it's served as field for battle
The precious rain that's fallen here has come from children's tears
The babbling brook, from tower it took from Babylon it's prattle
Dividing tongues and tribes and sons and daughters from their parents
Along the lines and signs and tongues as language often suffers
The little children to false kings and prophets here among us
To trudge across the sands of time, ground down through ill fame
And the wall that's built between us, is building... "In Your Name"

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