The Lion Pauses

by henry 7. reneau, jr.

Sunday, February 21st standing at the podium,
The Audubon Ballroom in Harlem

Preachin to the choir & pauses
In a moment between tick & tock, a d’j’ vu that hovered

A glimpse of repetition,
Epiphany that sowed sorrow in the stutter of his heart;

His blood recounts the iron weight of shackles
& a balmy ocean breeze soothing an equatorial shore,

The sound of whiplash striking flesh & shots ring out
Has happened all before as in, Pandora’s Box,

When freedom became the dream
& hope, handled with a chain inside a frozen scream

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henry 7. reneau, jr. has been published in various journals/anthologies, among them, Nameless Magazine; Subliminal Interiors Literary Arts Magazine; The Chaffey Review; The View From Here; FOLLY Magazine; Entering; Tule Review; BlazeVOX; Black Heart Magazine; Forty Ounce Bachelors; Suisun Valley Review; and Tidal Basin Review.