i woke up this morning to the Twitterer hashtag #IfIDieInCustody sparked by yet another police vs person of colour incident in Americaland. i have already blogged about it here, but the semi-poet in me kept screaming words and phrases and so eventually i sat down and came up with three different flavoured micropoems, for three different groups of people:
= = = = = = =
white america
to those
of you
who have
made the
jump
from ‘those people’
to
‘our brothers and sisters’
there is
but one small
leap left to make
when your cry
becomes
“Stop killing US!”
maybe then
someone will
take notice…
= = = = = = =
justice for Sandy
they found her
a life taken
by her our own hands
and as i
rush once more
to vent my
frustration
on another hashtag
the policeman’s
stammering justification
rings in my ears
= = = = = = =
white american church
how dare you
remain silent
as she tries to
work out a melody
using only
the black keys
on your
grandma’s old piano?
rise up
and let your
privilege be heard
as your fingers
crash down upon
those ivory keys
and your integrated song
helps to
gently lower her body
into a sandy grave
= = = = = = =
With huge thanks to Original Dante who got me inspired to start pouring my many words into just a few.
[…] triple threat [three poems to different audiences in the wake of #IfIDieInPoliceCustody and Sandy Bland death] […]