Two Poems by Olga Dugan

The Effort

        (for Nicky)

he has to go, take care of his other kids
she throws his jacket at him, ushers
back into the dining room her baby-girl
my great niece in creams, peats, pumpkins
little leafy-gold shoes—an ode to autumn

the Thanksgiving crowd swallows up
the two-year old while she stands apart
watching, burnt-orange and sienna wig
situated neatly, squiggles down her neck
the effort to look pretty exudes
from the doll-baby top that v’s in black
cotton down white see-through seersucker
a proper stop where an under blouse
covers her cleavage

blue, red, yellow, pink-painted horizons
stylize tattered jeans, but hardly swath
tears and rips I see
when congratulations!
for everything to everyone else
move into the living room away from her
and the turkey she’s made with such skill, care
when she looks in the mirror for competence
confidence I know are there
but—eyes lowering, regret aging her face
shoulders heaving, going limp—I know
she has, once more, missed…

still, her effort to look again so not to stymie
all hope, inspires, and mustering up
a compatriot’s faith in her battle of beating
failure with a try, I savor the moment
by looking again, too

*

An Ode of Modern Martyrs

today, our polyphonic voices still
hum Amazing Grace, Alleluia
shout Be Outraged, Pay Attention!
we still stand against what makes
the word “evil” flesh
still sow seeds so love grows
strong enough to drown out hydras
spewing from many heads many heads
hate, mendacity, myth—some grafted
in this law, that praxis, some raised
in monuments of concrete, bronze—

because the legacy of centuries slain
every defender of peace
every “strange fruit” in age, creed
color of martyr has been and is
to bet on our very precious lives
that humanity is more than its troubled history
that the angels of our better natures can discern
tares from wheat, tares even greater angels
will one day gather for burning
that truth, though sometimes hidden
too often slowed to a grind
will nonetheless reign and remain
the arc ever bent toward the good and just

*

Olga Dugan is a Cave Canem poet. Nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes, her award-winning poems appear in many literary journals and anthologies including The Write Launch, The Sunlight Press, Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, Ekstasis, The Windhover, The Agape Review, Grand Little Things, Kweli, Emerge, ONE ART, Channel (Ireland), E-Verse Radio, evolution: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, and the Munster Literature Centre’s Poems from Pandemia – An Anthology.