Roy Akiyamo
Dear Cardinal
I did not witness your passing, nor did I cause it –
one flecked feather from your right wing stood straight up to heaven
The remainder of you held down, smashed down into the double
yellow line
The angel of our times stuck between warring factions
You could not escape. I suppose it might have been morning,
before the cicadas of the day got going with their high trilling
symphonies of sound, should I call it music? This question of
your demise, did the murderer not like your message?
The lemon beak of pity, now horizontal to life and who you were
sung only to Poe on a park bench in Baltimore
I would have given you a right proper funeral but no one cares
on Instagram. I should have scraped you off the road, now that
I am infected with this afterbirth of guilt, the guilt of the innocent
In doing nothing to cease the wickedness of the wicked.
Bio
Roy Akiyamo is a native of Bucks county Pa, he has been writing poetry and stories for over thirty years and has been published in River Heron review, Karla's 13 New Hope Poets, Apiary magazine, Bucks county writers magazine, New Zealand's Billstickers Cafe Reader, Bucks county Herald and others. He has studied at New York University NYU Tisch school of the arts and Bucks county community college. In a paraphrase of Einstein he believes that imagination is more important than knowledge. Roy is also a United States Army veteran. He served as a medic in the Middle East and other places. Roy Word Smith, as he is known among his poetry colleagues has been a long time facilitator and docent of multiple poetry readings and series including the New Hope Poets and Writers Group.