A Dead Man
by
Sabio
"I'm old enough to know that ain't no justice."
"I'm old enough to know that ain't no justice."
---Tupac Shakur
I am a dead man,
Though not quite yet.
But I might as well be,
For I am a black man.
From a chokehold
Or from multiple bullets,
Or by cardiac arrest
From an X twenty six -
From either one of those
I can take my pick.
No witness to tell my story;
It will be buried with me.
It will be buried with me.
But the uniformed one?
He knows but will not tell.
He knows but will not tell.
He has been telling "a" story;
He said that I threatened him.
He will say that I attacked him,
How he feared for his life.
My story does not matter -
Not to them; not in the least -
My story that I was unarmed,
That for my own life I feared.
My life does not matter -
Not to them, it doesn't -
For I am a black man,
A dead man.
I am a dead man,
A black man.
A black man.
[photo art by Ric Couchman]