Words Hanging

And the rot inside

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Audio version of this poem here.

Toes hang above the ground
Just out of reach
Inches away from relieving the weight of a hanging body

We are lynching Black people again

Once we had the courage to call it what it was
Now we cower behind words like

Suicide
Resisting arrest
If only he wasn’t

And I wonder how we can say these words
Even now
While the sun’s rays
Are interrupted from reaching
Our pink cheeks
Intermittently
By the man swinging from that rope?

The creak of the tree that bears his weight
Is the only honest thing left

I regard the tree and I wonder
How many more rings she will grow
And if the ring to mark these days
Will always be marred by this rot
Tattooed in sin
Will it hold words like

Never again?

I sit by her and hold my hand
Over the word Never
I try to find a way to tell her
That other rings will be marked too
But I cannot find the strength to say it

I can’t say suicide
I can’t say lynching either

Not now, while my pink cheeks bear their silhouettes

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