Khristian E. Kay
Khristian E. Kay Poems
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the labor leaders, but I did not speak out because I was not a unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
...
You taught me insecurity
against a rainfall sweet
and mesmerizing
to be afraid of myself
...
you were always a queer little boy
I mean that in the archaic sense of
my own historical lexicon meaning
unique different extra-ordinary the
...
Hawking says it begins this way
a thought expressing itself in the
darkness of nothing: 'no thing'
and then exploding itself across the vast expanse of time
...
The rafters burn last
but they also burn hottest
their brittle and aged supports
old couplets stored for
...
I wish you
had seen the flurry of orange carpet take flight
drifting a lazy smoke of Sulphur Moths
twirling a slow motion whirling dervish
...
Did you know we are the only species
on the planet
Whose total extinction would actually
Benefit every other species?
...
She asked me if I was a government agent
I was taken aback by that
I mean how do you answer a question like that?
Truthfully?
...
We don’t sell our bodies to the highest
Or only bidder to feed children
We don’t feed the children
We feed our need
...
Government cheese don’t melt
the trick is to slice it up in little matchstick pieces
then chop those up into little bits
the cubes mix with watery macaroni
...
Marriage is nothing more
than planned obsolescence
A method of stimulating
a lover’s demand through
...
This is kind of like that experience
that time back at school with Linda Wesner
You know…
...
I met this woman once
In a bar in Spokane
I told her I was a runaway monk
A long story about taking a sabbatical
...
It’s been a month of Sundays since you touched me
Even longer since you called me by my name
It seems so far off outside of us
Inside I’m still the same
...
'hey how come you're not watching the game? '
it's difficult to make out who is who
in the slip of blood and mud
...
She called me a misogynist
Me of all people!
I love women!
...
You have taken all my heroes
slaughtered them
as blighted cattle
and hung them out the window
...
Do you believe in love?
Of course not
you are a pedestaled woman
created wholly
...
She once told me …
She tells me a lot
I never get a word in edgewise
She tells me what to think
...
you must understand the value of words
their syntax and command their power
to control and define
...
Khristian E. Kay Biography
Khristian E. Kay is a storyteller; a teacher/poet. Generally considered to be controversial in subject matter because he pursues knowledge as the end all of existence. Khristian's work often stretches the limits of complacency digging into the cracks as it were of what constitutes idealism. While his work appears political and often satirical he utilizes the words as metaphorical rubber bullets: painful and bruising and only lethal at close range. See khristianekay.com Although a native of Milwaukee, WI and a systematic product of the inappropriately named 'MidWest' Khristian has lived in many western states and tends to feel a homesickness for the Pacific Northwest. A vocal advocate of education versus schooling, the nobility of educators versus 'teaching', Kay continues within the K-12 and post secondary classrooms teaching everything from English, Science, Multi-Media and Film, the Humanities, IS&T, math, art and just about everything in between. He has performed and lectured all over the country. Kay received a Foundation for the Arts Grant in 1997 to produce a rap version of Othello as written and performed by his adjudicated students at the state run boy's school. Kay has edited and produced many small press periodicals and journals, and currently oversees the non-profit organization 'KnowB4No.org' An organization dedicated to expanding the education and knowledge base of people concerning the risks of children and the transmission, prevention of AIDS, HIV, and STDs. He has written several books for teachers on teaching diverse student populations, including 'The 3 'Tells' and is also the author of several books and cds of original poetry and spoken word.)
The Best Poem Of Khristian E. Kay
What Will You Say When They Come For Me?
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the labor leaders, but I did not speak out because I was not a unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
As one day became another and others disappeared, gypsies, mentally retarded, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, criminals, anti-socials and emigrants, I remained silent because I was not one of them.
Then it was they came for me, but no one spoke for me because by then there was no one left to speak.
Martin Niemoller,1945.
What will you say when they come for me?
Niemoller did not speak out
because he was not threatened
his beliefs, ideologies, sex was
of no concern to others
at first
I speak out not because I am threatened
but because
So many are
And In doing so
I have pulled back these curtains
lifted the blinds a peek
to let you see in these windows
to give you a glimpse of mine
of these demons we try to keep hidden
in the dark of our souls
It is a statement of recursive
hindsight this
I find myself often standing as Voltaire
standing up for what is right
What is honorable, what is true
Even though often what is right
And what is true
is not what you do and
“it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong”
And among you I stand alone
for you prefer to keep your shades
drawn tight, as if permanence
can be exuded through your denial
your demons you pretend are
a phantom temptation you
hope to will away through penance
prayer you can will away
by closing your eyes,
by closing your heart
but you can never close your soul
I ask of you:
are we good souls tempted by evil?
Or are we evil souls struggling to be good?
And I am often afraid
Not of the demons we try to hide
nor those we allow to escape
but because of the fear that drives
Your thoughts
The fear that drives your will
The fear that denies the truth
I am afraid of what you fear
and often what you fear is me
I have loved you and
in loving you I allow you to possess
these truths which have come to
define me which have come to drive me
which have come to frighten you
Your demons possess you
and you say it is not you but something else
and you believe that you can hide from them
that they are not a part of you
that they are not a part of you - you embrace
a part of you - you indulge in
you fancy and dally with
on the outskirts of your temptation
so you close your eyes in denial
seeking comforting in the dark
a darkness that frightens you
because there - there are no demons
only you alone with your own personal thoughts
And you say that those something elses
Those plays of darkness
Those images incarnate inherent
are not a part of you
I have entrusted in your care now
My secrets
You have become the caretaker of the truth
My soul
And now I fear you
not because there is no one to speak up for me
I have you
not because there is no one to stand up with me
for I have you
I fear you
Because you are afraid of the dark
Because you are afraid of what they will say
I fear you
Not because you will not speak up for me
but rather
What you will say to make them come for me
©2005 All rights reserved
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