Holding Fast

I keep remembering the churches the people and their sad faces trembling over faded operatic lungs that can stop gasping but will not— raising hands in the air I keep remembering the organ its weary cry drenched in Picasso blue the desperate stare of scarcity fists clinched— raising hands in the air I keep remembering the bluster the depressions in the earth hordes of old women gossiping with frowns turned upside down properly trimmed— raising hands in the air I keep remembering the girl’s dresses their young black legs secured by tall fathers soles stamping incensed the B-24 Liberator, solar powered war— and the people raising hands in the air