backtrack

8/4/05

if only the world would stop
and forget how to tie its shoes
and have to start over again
like a sick and nervous little
five year old girl
on the first day
of kindergarten

then,
perhaps,
we could have our clean slate

then,
perhaps,
we could all
have peace and smile

and be free of the chalk of our
ancestors, the scribblings that
lock us in like black prison bars –
white lines strong as steel
yet weak like a child’s
shoelaces
tied round and tight by her parents