A Butterfly in Texas

When the pebble flung hits the water
    like the stone that overthrew Goliath
    and the bullet-stricken politician
    exits into the limelight of the stage

so the rage of man is the centre
    flinging outwards the ego
    the wedge of passion     lip of wave
    and lace of violence
upheaval of the mind
    races the street in rioting

and the mad hasty dog parades the barricades
    with club in hand     grenades or cobblestones
    newly-torn to dig a grave in someone's Goliath head

we protest over bodies burst in the eye of the hurricane
as the swollen creek running wildly overflows
flooding the land with its sorrow and pain


poem written during the riots and violence of the early sixties, revised mm