A Common Hate Enriched Our Love and Us by Dennis Brutus

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A common hate enriched our love and us by

Brutus poem, 20/3/09

Escape to parasitic ease disgusts;  

discreet expensive hushes stifled us,  

the plangent wines became acidulous.

Rich foods knotted to revolting clots  

of guilt and anger in our queasy guts,  

remembering the hungry comfortless.

In drafty angles of the concrete stairs,  

or seared by salt winds under brittle stars,  

we found a poignant edge to tenderness,

and, sharper than our strain, the passion  

against our land’s disfigurement and tension;  

hate gouged out deeper levels for our passion—  

a common hate enriched our love and us.