CBP photo
By
Dee Allen
Split
Children
Under silver
Thermal blankets
Don’t
Belong in
Cages any
More than
Cats, rabbits
Or their
Own parents.
The presidency
Wants more
Prisoners between
Blood generations.
Over 2700
Justifications
In filling
Potentially building
Detention centres
Ad nauseum.
Uncontrollable
Crying
Of children
At the border
Forcibly split
From their elders
By arms
Border Patrol strong
Sounds like family stability
Ending.
Half gets
Foster care
In foreign homes.
Half gets
Sudden
Return to
The Southern
Hell they escaped.
The presidency sends their loud, collective message
To all migrants resolute in staying together:
“Cross a river,
Cross a desert,
By-pass our
National fence,
Come over here
Looking for asylum
And you and yours
Are good as split!”
Concrete Altar
Black lives
Don’t matter
To the C.O.
Walking the cell-block.
Black lives
Matter less
To the salty
Beat-cop patrolling the ‘hood, squadcar on prowl.
Black lives
Don’t matter
To the vigilante
Bigot gone hunting for heads darker than his.
Black lives
Matter less
To sharp steel
Unprovoked
Insane wrath thrust
Into young
Necks on
A subway train platform.
One female left wounded. Her sister
Never saw past 18.
MacArthur B.A.R.T.*
Past sundown:
Gleaming candles, flowers & photos,
Altar formed over concrete.
People, victim’s family gathered
Among blaring Hip Hop tracks
And wall projections of little
Light-skinned Nia
In happier times, the
Look of another adolescent
In love
With life
Demanded a justice for her
None of them knew.
Protect your necks.
Protect each other,
Little sisters
And brothers.
[For Nia Wilson—2000-2018]
*Bay Area Rapid Transit
Dee Allen
African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on the creative writing & Spoken Word tips since the early 1990s. Author of 3 books [Boneyard, Unwritten Law and Stormwater, all from POOR Press] and 15.5. anthology appearances [including Poets 11: 2014, Feather Floating On The Water, Rise, Your Golden Sun Still Shines and the newest from MoonShine Star Company, What Is Love] under his figurative belt so far.
Dee Allen is in the process of producing his upcoming 4th volume of poetry entitled Skeletal Black.
Wonderful political poetry - very succinct, very true, very appalling.