FROM THE DEPTHS BY DEE ALLEN

After Truth Comes Out Of Her Well by Jean-Léon Gérome.

Unsightly
To look at,
Unbearable
To listen to,
Easy
To avoid
For a moment,

The shamed one
Without clothes

Scales up
Protruding stones
On the encircling wall,
Climbs toward the light above
Away from the damp, dark below,
Where she was unjustly held.
In her clenched teeth, a bullwhip.
On her mind, the need to chastise
Humanity for
Casting her
Down there
From notice.

From the depths of an old
Stone well, she comes out
Armed with her leather lash, Truth
Wearing nothing but
Her indignation at
The society she faces,
Invested in defending
All the falseness they so love—

African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on the creative writing & Spoken Word tips since the early 1990s. Author of 5 books [“Boneyard”, “Unwritten Law”, “Stormwater” and “Skeletal Black”, all from POOR Press, and his newest from Conviction 2 Change Publishing, “Elohi Unitsi”