A Wreath for a Dead Man

The Arts: Poetry ---

A Dead Man

by

Sabio

"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.

But the uniformed one?
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.

[photo art by Ric Couchman]