Lest I Climb Too High
by
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The Return
Nobody saw her coming home
As though in the long nights of her leaving
She’d gone no farther than the edge
Of their hushed voices
Sinking between the syllables of her name
Her absence merely the steps
Between two chores
Steve Biko
A Black leader who died of injures in and at the hands of South African police
Your name troubles me from your other land
Across an ocean your fathers crossed long ago
Driven by the shoulders of the wind in the sails
The brutal legs of the wind thrusting their feet
Into the beaten face of your birthplace
Africa Africa
Driven back back and away
The knots merely nautical miles to their captors
Not the measures of pain on a whip
Why does your dying turn my face
Within my own deathmask
Leaving the sockets with no eyes to see
The beaten face of my birthplace?
Driven forward forward and away
Fleeing the part of you left behind
Shunning the part that came in chains
To drag two sets of bones
Your own and your father’s
To separate graves
Bikko Bikko Bikko
They found the color of their own skulls
With the clubs that shattered yours
Howling in the snow
A dog shows his ribs and chain
To silent windows
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About the Book
Everyone should find something to relate to in Lest I Climb Too High
About the Author
About the Author
Morris Breakstone’s (1921 – 2008) life obsessions of physical fitness, family and fighting injustice took root where he was born in the Bronx,
During World War II, Morris was assigned to an infantry company and later volunteered for and saw combat with the First Special Service Force, an elite American and Canadian commando brigade that would become the model for the U.S. Special Forces.
After the war he majored in psychology at the City College of New York later working as an intern, attendant and psychologist in two mental hospitals. While director of psychology at the Coldwater State Home and Training school, he secretly investigated allegations that African Americans were being unfairly unpunished and took his findings to state officials. After a ten year battle, Morris was vindicated in court.
At the age of 70 Morris did 709 pushups in 34 minutes – a feat cited in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”.
Morris wrote two novels – Company Punishment (2001) and Seclusion (2002) – and a collection of short stories and essays, Views from the Leaning Rest Position (2005).
Morris Breakstone is survived by his wife, Angie, and his two beloved cats, Teenohk and Shneeya.