GLUE

Take down 
the stars and bars,

the Confederate
battle flag that flies,

over the Capitol 
in Charleston.

And take down
the Confederate 

veterans' monument, 
and the statue 
of the white supremacist, 

who was once 
governor and senator, 

that stand nearby.
Then take down all 

the remaining symbols,
every fiber
and every stone,

all of the vestiges 
of slavery,

every hair-thin remnant
of that terrible time

until not a rootlet remains
in any city or town.

But when they are all 
cleared away, taken down,  

carried off, and finally 
gone:  How to remove

the hatred that lingers 
in a grown man’s heart?


About Gil Hoy:
Gil Hoy is a Boston trial lawyer. He studied poetry at Boston University, while receiving a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, magna cum laude, and won a silver medal in the New England University Wrestling Championship at 177 lbs. Gil received an MA in Government from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as an elected Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Gil’s poems have been published recently in The New Verse News, Clark Street Review, The Penman Review, The Antarctica Journal, Third Wednesday, The Potomac, The Zodiac Review and To Hold A Moment Still, Harbinger Asylum’s 2014 Holidays Anthology.