soul murder
listen,
banging on the back door
files of despairing dead arrive
flies flapping in swirls of night
damning anatomy of soul murder rises -
screeching, souls pulled over razor pointed
heinous history, burned, beaten, shot, stabbed,
water hosed, dog-ravaged, hanged from trees,
dragged behind cars, left to die on wire fencing,
our myriad murders, our unprotected heroes -of
then, now ripped in hellish heave backward again,
screeching in righteous recrimination draw messages
in their crusted blood spilled for naught,here they are
pulled from places of rest, leaning in exhausted agony -
these resurrected, recriminating warriors of past struggles
won-now defeated long after the fact, faces of disgust push
patterns of themselves through the net of the creaky screen door -
come to shake their heads, eyes deep-dark in agony of our betrayal
our permitting this
racism reload -
reinvigorated and
balloted as normal
embracing the dark
seeking spirits to
destroy
listen,
learn
light,
fight
now
