My little brother has the sweetest dimples
as if honey dipped happiness puddles on his brown chin
Legs made to run and he’s barely one
I hope he’s quick
burdened by forever fitting the description
I hope he’s fast
with those slave feet
fast enough to beat a speeding mal-intent militant bullet
cruising through your hood in cruisers
I can’t breathe
imagining him laid out
like a Law & Order: SVU scene
flashing on the TV screen
The grand jury content with no indictment
Look, I’m no Al Sharpton
but
Fred Hampton,
Rodney King, Emmett Till,
Amadou Diallo, Ousmane Zongo, Timothy Stansbury,
Sean Bell, Bernard Bailey, Jahzeph Crooks, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner,
Akai Gurley, Oscar Grant III, Ernest Duenez, Christopher Middleton, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown,
my father, my cousin, my brother
They all deserve better
than a supped up militarized Jim Crow task force
The truth is
they shoot dissenters and threats down like dominoes
it takes too long to turn on the hose
get the dogs
and lynching ropes I guess
Cops kill boys that look like me
all natural haired and sun baked skin
suspect or not
no one wants to die here
Why does your split decision always shatter his life like porcelain
dolls tap dance on bloodied pavement
that all the world’s perfumes cannot sweeten
They unload clips
We turn on each other with weapons
and the violence
spins this world on it’s axis
What if I have a son…
What if I came home and my husband…
I shudder at the thought! !