sometimes
it seems
the ideas by which
i identify how to exist
don't exist

and i drape
like a wet towel;
i drape
like a raped
youth
with missing panties.

my radius,
radius,
radius,
and my radius
are filled
with my waving
arms

and
i feel this wavering
when i close my eyes
// still //
and plant myself
in the
ground.

like a ring
tied to a stone
sinking
to the point
of mere reference.

"How does a High-School teacher who clearly identified with
rules and order, education and justice react to the massacre of four
students at Kent State by Ohio National Guardsmen? At the time,"a high
school teacher from Kent, Ohio asserted that the slain students deserved
to die. She made this statement even thought she was well aware that at
least two of the victims were not participating in the demonstration but
were peacefully walking off campus at the time at the time of the
shooting. Indeed, she went on to say, 'Anyone who appears in the streets
of a city like Kent with long hair, dirty clothes, or barefooted deserves
to be shot'((1971)New York: Random House)."