Poetic adjustments
hands up
don't shoot
i can't breathe
this keeps happening
black lives matter
excepting, of course
mike brown ferguson
eric garner new york
kaijeme powell st. louis
ezell ford los angeles
tamir rice cleveland
(12 years old!)
and so on and so forth.
the mayor of new york said
black lives matter
and to have to say that
here in 2014
smacks of absurd bizarro jeez
as in wtf is the prob, people?
it sounds like something
the mayor of new york
might have said in 1876.
i wrote a year ago
about all our wonderful progress
in racial relations now that
blacks and whites sit together
integrated peaceful no big deal
at concerts and sporting events.
that column now feels
like so much hokum
like so much jerkoff flapdoodle
pollyanna licking the cute
goody two shoes worn by her
whip wielding dominatrix.
yes yes yes,
there are loads of good cops
blah blah blah
we know we know of course.
but now we're reminded
plenty of jittery fearful and
super pissy racist cops too.
and they're out there fucking up.
so let's cut the crap.
you know i know we all know
one job of the d.a.
is to take care of the cops.
got it?
he achieves this through a
handy little secret council
called the grand jury.
murkier than swamp water
these unknown people do
the d.a.'s c.y.a. handiwork
let trigger happy cops walk.
nobody can find these jurors
so nobody asks why or how
and the d.a. gets to say
“hey, it's the system at work
i did my job they did theirs
and they did it well
like common decent folks.
heh heh heh.”
grand juries indict 99% of cases
99 fucking percent!
yet both juries fanned
in ferguson and new york?
gee, uh, wotta coincidence.
all we are saying
is give us a trial.
nobody said guilty
nobody said innocent
just how about a trial?
america responds
fuck you
shut up
be peaceful
watch football
go to the mall
fuhgeddaboutit.
string yer lights
clean yer guns
happy holidays.