poetry – Paths I Walk

Photo: https://media.iwm.org.uk/ciim5/36/103/large_000000.jpg

A World War 1 trench, not quite the Hyatt, Hilton or whatever, way beyond my experience.

I Hope Someone Remembers

Trenches could not be loved,
they were open tombs,
flooded, muddied, with
congealed wire garlands and
sodden timber treads,
and the stench of the living dead all round,
their sunken eyes testimony to
the glue of resignation and guilt.
Our feet blackened for love of country,
our minds already lost
in battles of their own,
Dante’s Inferno come to life,
with the sting of gas and metallic chatter,
always the thudding, crumping, shells
that shake our bones
and reshape our vision.
Our thoughts occasionally turn to
going home, could it be?
But that thought is scotched
as machine guns lace the air,
and the referee’s whistle calls play,
all the while the unrelenting cries
of death and pain rain down.
No more to hold a hand or taste…

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Sunday, September 15, 2012, at 8pm edt, KDCL Media with Miss Paula & Oro Shango present author Lanaia Lee

Lanaia Lee was born to a Navy father and a school teacher mother. With the death of her mother from a massive stroke a stroke when Lanaia was 9, and due to his military career, her father lost custody of Lanaia to her grandmother, a professed black witch, who abandoned her at 14.

Suffering from erratic hypertension, Lanaia suffered a stroke when at the age of 30. For the next 2 years, she underwent intensive physical therapy, but would never walk again. She found work at a vocational trade school to help with her rehab and there met her husband, David, who was also in a wheelchair from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

In 2001, David dared her to write a poem. Out of curiosity, she posted it on an online poetry forum. The feedback was so positive, she kept writing. She has published several novels and anthologies of short stories and poetry. All of her work is typed with one hand because of her disabilities.

Lanaia gives credit to God’s grace, which she believes has helped her overcome immense adversity, and she claims she won’t quit until she hits the bestseller list.