This is a poem I received from Piper Davenport that to me resonates deep feelings. She requested I post it and I shall.

THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ACCORDING TO A WOMAN NAMED R-I-G-H-T-E-O-U-S
by Piper Davenport

Suburban blues kidnapped people to Detroit where what they didn't know makes them leave.

Make no apologies while they listen, listen to me-- the righteous one.

Until it happens to them, people will never understand our city and the plights that forever haunt me.

Other women clutch their sadness; their babies are dying in coffins; the guns of someone's else misery are etched in their misery.

Uneasiness sings to me. . .

I've cried and walked through cemeteries, familiar faces I can no longer hold onto.

Sometimes I wonder what has everyone running in a frenzy, trying not to go to fall to pieces

Someone calls me a black-and-white coward; I'm a leopard and I won't change my stripes.

Even the soil of our city is ruined by fire and nightmares that hang over like a dark cloud and the black mayor who refuses to be nobody's fool but his own.

There are no smiles and lollipops and ice cream trucks and the children grow up c r a c k e d to pieces.

Helpless we are, hopeless we'll stay, help us they said. Witnesses canvas neighborhoods looking for saints and converts. One of them asks me, Whose favorite person are you? I say, none, not in this city, behind the doors. They say they care and they will be back and I wait and wait and wait until I'm all alone again.


Piper Davenport is a graduate of the Universityof Michigan-Dearborn with a BA in English. Her past publishing credits include: the Lyceum, Pitkin Review, Mirrors of Life, Creative Writers' Corner, HackWriters, 63 Channels and an essay she wrote is to be featured in the December 2007 issue of PoeticDiversity. She likes to watch House Hunters andGhost Whisperer in her spare time and dreams of owning her own home some day.

Good luck Piper, I wish you great success and hope all your dreams come true.