Excerpt from Measuring For Balance by Author Demitri Tyler

Searching for Signs

I risk myself
run into fire
embrace the inferno
dive into death
into the rubble
of pain
fear
disunion
into the hopeless black smoke of humanity
burning
choking on history’s
scars and
fresh wounds in
search of a foot
a leg
a torso
a watch connected to a hand
I don’t care what color hand
show me a sign any signs
I am sifting for a reason
crouched amid violence
knees in dirt
ear on the heart of earth
digging, clawing
desperate for the
faint sound of
flesh human flesh
beating against steel
against hate
refusing to
submit to this
praying for
a wheeze from
a lung even a
soft murmur
a soft murmur