March 30, 2012

Who authorized these magnolias to bloom

To celebrate

When the boy in the hoodie is dead?

 

It must have been the NRA

Or some night watchman stalking his prey

Playing God

 

And the teenage boy had his head covered like any pious man

I ever knew

 

So I asked the magnolias to shed their petals early

To say a few words

To pay their respects

 

I pleaded with April to wait a few months

Before making an entrance,

To leave us time to mourn

For another pious man who died a boy

At night

Before the world could protest

 

            Troy Davis

                       

                        Trayvon Martin

 

I said shed your petals!

 

These magnolias hover still

In vainglorious constellations

And urge me to sing their praises

 

I’m not the pious man I used to be.