LITERATURE: Confrontation No. 88/89 – Poetry

I did read through all the poetry in this issue, and perhaps because of recent discussion with a friend, this one stands out:

Dichter by Peter Krok (p. 253)

You who have not a claim
Only the clamoring of a tongue
Who are you to say
You’re gnawed by questions
That like squirrels chew
At bags of yesterday’s refuse?

Like every vagrant,
You have a stake in this time.
You scrap together
What won’t be left behind
Hardly knowing why yet only
It stirs that hungry mind.

I like this.  There’s a combination of hopeless and hope, a brazen challenge to move on from the past and its mistakes to a starting point to make better what we can to leave a better world.