White light
Blue lake
A black wave that only a
year before
had run red
all over French vineyards
and German trenches
now wilting under the
scorn
of an ungrateful
nation
More apt to
throw rocks
than roses at its retuned
heroes
Colour lines
marking the impassive shores of
Lake Michigan
Just as battle lines marked
The Somme
Black rage crashing against
white
complacency
The walls and streets of
Chicago
painted in the blood of the
innocent
and involved alike
racing beyond the city beyond
the time
it pours forth from
Emmett Till and
onward still from
Laquan Trayvon Eric and
nameless others
blood
blood
blood
and fire
Klan crosses burning
the wicked smoke cursing
the very air over
Black homes
whole neighbourhoods seething
like Garner with his
cigarettes
a difficulty
breathing
The long black shadow of
Jim Crow's wing and
the Black belt unlooped
the whiplash
still felt
a Century
later
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