Carolyn A. Butts, NY, USA 

Declaration of Independence (The Day My Mother Went Insane)

the day she went insane

my mother declared herself

a Sovereign State

She threw away money

Washington, Lincoln & Jackson

went up in flames

she hung a red flag

in the living room,

declared her home a new nation

The day my mother went insane

started 25 years ago

She passed a law against

Red meat,

declared it an illegal contraband

in her home

She tossed

pork chops, steak and

even the leftover

fried chicken

in the trash

Her insanity she says

Is God´s Wisdom

the day my mother went insane

she threw away her pressing comb,

let her hair lock

she screamed about conspiracies

against Black boys and girls,

attending schools that don´t teach

and dying at the hands of cops

that kill

the day my mother went insane

American doctors held her hostage,

tried to make her believe Prozac

and talk shows were real

tried to make her believe

that killing babies

was okay

tried to make her believe

their insanity

was reality

the day my mother went insane

I cried, silently

because she was

Free

A nation unto her own.

© January 1999, Carolyn A. Butts

3-D Joy

I want to experience something

beyond the convenience of packaged

consumer life

Want to shed

the cell phone,

disengage my e-mail

and cable systems

Want to meditate with trees,

sample unpackaged love,

the kind of love that quickens

your heart and makes your mind

e  x  p  a   n  d

I want to know 3-Dimensional Joy

the kind our fathers and mothers

called pain for gain

the kind of grit that builds character

and wisdom

there is no pain now, no joy

just the emptiness from being

disconnected           disembodied     and       

disengaged

In a world filled with connections to every place

but the soul

© 2001 Carolyn A. Butts

3,000 Souls & 8 million lives a prayer for New York City after 9/11

The ruins are still burning,

souls lie unsettled buried within a man made womb

of brick, mortar and ash

the grief too deep to comprehend

we keep moving, each step unsteady

in a city turned upside down from mourning

people who dissolved in mid-sentence

or leapt into nothingness right before our eyes

tomorrow seems further away in these times,

not promised

pray for the living and dead

let them join hands and walk to higher ground

there is a future in the distance

a place where dust and tears begin a new life cycle

for 3,000 souls and 8 million lives

© 2001 Carolyn A. Butts

God's Pen

You inspire a thousand poems

in me

but no words

to write them

So I borrowed God's Pen

and used the sky as verse

Lovers who share

the first sunrise

know my poems

© January, 1999, Carolyn A. Butts

BIO

Carolyn Butts has been writing poetry and prose since

she was 10-years-old. Extremely shy as a child, she

saw writing as a way of communicating and

expressing herself. It was a way out of her shell.

Carolyn explains, "I used to be so shy that I had one

best friend and she would ask the teachers if I could

use the bathroom because I was so afraid of raising my

voice and speaking in public. I was the kid who sat in

the back or front of the class and never said a word.

But I heard all." Since then Caolyn has shed her

shyness and pubished African Voices Magazine; a NY

based literary magazine which has featured the work of

many established and upcoming writers and visual

artists.  Carolyn is also working on her own poetic

debut, "God's Pen." To get more info about Carolyn

check her website http://www.carolynabutts.com or the

African Voices website http://www.africanvoices.com.