Stationary Front

By Larry Rochelle

next to weather maps

spread outward from oak chairs,

near power pinnacles,

lie orifices of the poor, most

bleeding from blows struck

for freedom, blows too granite-tough

to avoid, night

wounds in the middle of poverty,

votes of constituents blunted by

whispered corridor words,

and nothing counted after all.

– Larry Rochelle, author of “I Got Da Ever Lovin’ KC Blues,” is a Johnson County Community College English professor.