Tracking the Enemy
Tracking the Enemy
By Kim Shuck
Tracking the enemy
Such an exhausting thing the
Woman’s cheek an
Unknown cheek pressed against the
Burning wall of her house or the heaving
Pavement and this violence of
Denied violence the psychopathic edges that
Everyone has in some measure and here it’s
Permitted must keep them startled
Send them on like the Bosnian woman
Hiding in London her child wearing
Donated clothes, handmade for another
Child in California the color and embroidery
Chosen particularly by a woman’s hand an
Unknown hand an
Unknown child another touch
Sent on and probably sent on
Again as the cotton was good and
Sturdy stuff the burn scar on a
Woman’s arm a child’s arm too
Deep to be soup or anything so
Nourishing unknown eyes but meeting over
Evidence of a lesson provided if not
Learned unknown eyes oddly the same
Brown with flecks of green another
Lesson our shared genetic textile puzzle
Might offer some day or even on that one
Day a thing moved on that touch and touch
Tracking the enemy
So tiring this skin handed on
Handed over sturdy stuff a similar palm print a
Comforting collection of words a
Mediation for headache in small
Yellow flowers an unknown hand
Unknown gene an
Unknown symbol of protection in
Silk thread on a child’s jacket
Good sturdy stuff our
Paths have crossed threads have
Crossed and it’s so tiring
Tracking the enemy
Kim Shuck is a poet, activist and curmudgeon. Shuck is solo author of 6 books, the latest Deer Trails, was published by City Lights in San Francisco. Kim is the seventh Poet Laureate of San Francisco and was awarded a National Laureate Fellowship by the Academy of American Poets in April 2019.