by Branson Neuman
Inspired by the Headline, “Police Fired 20 Times at South Sacramento Man Fatally Shot While Holding a Cellphone.”
Slavery!
Instant submission.
Oppression of religion.
Culture,
Stripped without permission.
With precision.
Till the tendons are sliced.
I Heard Gunshots!
Slave ships!
Onyx sinewy legs tangled and chained.
Wails of agony.
Waves and waves.
Suppressed.
Invest!
In humanity…
Or the lack thereof?
What is the price of a human life?
I Heard Gunshots!
Jim Crow!
Slurs, scorn and singeing verbs, spur slaves to revolt.
Cut down.
Deep into the tendons.
Deeper than the skin.
Whiplash!
From this image
Of anguish painting cotton dark scarlet.
I Heard Gunshots!
King’s Tomb.
Doom and gloom,
Fall on a Lorraine Motel room.
Memphis, Tennessee.
Armed to the wicked gnarled teeth
With racism.
41st birthdays.
99 years.
I Heard Gunshots!
Vietnam.
Napalm.
Agent Orange and
Agents of Dissonance.
Realizing their ignorance,
Protests became rampant.
Prejudice.
Bigotry.
Ripping living citizens
into vermilion ribbons.
I hear Gunshots.
2018
I walk the street. With
Earphones in.
THE VIRGINIA NORMAL 