Looking Beyond the Imperfections

Rattled skin
mottled molted
that familiar scar
cradled in an ancient
inner thigh
how once those thighs
rattled the night
raining waves of wonder
bobbing
on that sturdy sloop
off Martha’s Vineyard
the sails fore-and-aft rigged
full moons everywhere
I can still remember that smell
salted sea air glinting and gloaming
off the water
your laugh cutting the night
like a rising comet
how we have known the
the eternity of the event horizon
balanced on thin gravity
galaxies red shifting
how we moved from violet
wavelengths to red
nanometers rising
plasma pulses
waves raving
radio, infrared, X ray
and our favorite
ultraviolet ionization
breaking the chemical bonds
our atoms exploding
at the edge of the stern
my hand on the rigging
your arms clamped on me
like a chock-a-block
windward and leeward
we rode those waves
tacking our bodies
hugging the shore
like I hug you now
deep in the fathoms of night
knowing love
has no depth

Pump the Love Pump the Hope

Descending
all systems go
moving with the flow
we know
that the flow
is rising on up
and in that flow
we hug the lost raisins
we tell George Floyd
to stay home
stay off the streets
urging Laquan to put the knife away
hoping Breonna will just open the door
how the struggle
keeps surging
keeping the dream alive
as we walk to Selma
arm in arm
leg to leg
just keep moving
keep the dream alive
in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland
on the edges of Philly, Bronx, Minneapolis
the walls of Jericho
are coming down
no more leavening
bread on the run
we are here
we need to be seen
we are rising
rising on up
and in that ascending
we know
that our hearts
pulse pulse
blood flows
and in that artery
we pump
the love
we pump
the hope
that somehow
that someday
we will all be free...

Mark Hammerschick writes poetry and fiction. He holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a BS and MBA. He has contributed a number of poems to literary journals over the years and has been published sporadically. He is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and currently lives in a northern suburb near the shore of Lake Michigan. His current work will be appearing in: Calliope, Former People Journal, Sincerely Magazine, Mignolo Arts, Blue Lake Review, Naugatuck River Review, East on Central, Grey Sparrow Journal, Griffel, Wood Cat Review and The Rockvale Review.