"Threatened"
Gunshots
Screams
Sirens wailing
Then silence
What happened?
Another shooting
Why?
He felt threatened
Thought he had a weapon
Reaching to get his wallet.
Is it the hands in his pockets,
Or the melanin in his skin?
He didn't do anything wrong,
Abusing your power,
They cry
Yet the silence is overwhelming.
Black boy
Won’t meet his children.
White cop
Won’t get reparations.
Very powerful. I like your concise choice of words. Your last line was a very good end to the poem.
ReplyDeleteI like how short this poem is. It sends its message and then ends. I also really liked the way it ended because of the bluntness.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the parallel at the end with “Black boy / Won’t meet his children / White cop / Won’t get reparations.” It’s definitely so true today how innocent black children are murdered by police officers and robbed of their life. Then, the police officers are placed on “paid administrative leave,” not receiving the punishment they deserve.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of the poem I liked was the way you separated lines to highlight certain concepts. My favorite line was "Or the melanin in his skin" because it was a clever way to highlight the issues that you raised. Another thing that stood out to me was how in the last line, you used a similar sentence format to highlight the contrast.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used line breaks to emphasize your points. I like the line "yet the silence is overwhelming" because it really shows how these shootings keep happening and nothing is being done to stop them.
ReplyDelete