Look mom, no hands
published online in Dissident Voice, June 28th, 2020
He commits murder, bare-handed.
Except his hands are in his pockets.
He doesn’t need them
when the life below him
is already face-down, handcuffed,
suppressed for centuries.
All it takes is a knee
to a vulnerable place.
But when Kaepernick took a knee,
no one died
Still, protest peacefully, they say.
This is no time for riots,
just as it was no place for marches,
just as it was no era for speeches.
These are easy things to say
when you are on top,
when you can breathe—
here, where you are
casually living,
casually alive
with your hands in your pockets.
