I promised you my journey home but you will not have it,
At least not now.
How can I review airplane food
While my country burns?
Complain about boarding passes
While our chosen leader invokes the death sentence
For the theft of a television?
Count the minutes a flight was delayed
Instead of the 173 seconds a murderer kept murdering
When his victim was already dead?
I have not watched the video, I cannot watch the video
Derek Chauvin crushing George Floyd
While he called out for his mother
As I could crush only the tiniest of ants
Three comrades standing by.
I could not bear to watch the video
I do not need to watch the video
I can remember
Ahmaud Arbery
Botham Jean
Philando Castile
Sandra Bland
Freddie Gray
Tamir Rice
Eric Garner
Trayvon Martin
Amadou Diallo
Medgar Evers
Emmett Till
I search for solace this time around
Some hint of hope
At the sight of white as well as black faces in the angry crowd,
The sight of free burgers donated through broken windows,
The sight of a few policemen in riot gear
Taking a knee.
But the hope is not enough
The solace is not enough
Thoughts and prayers are not enough.
Black Lives Matter
Thank you for speaking out Susan!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was in too much pain to be able to write one of my usual jocular posts.
DeleteThat moved me to tears, Dr Levenstein. Thank you for articulating so movingly what so many of us are feeling, even when it is not our own countrymen and countrywomen who are being treated in such a way. Nothing more to say but to repeat after you - Black Lives Matter. Please stay safe and well yourselves. I will be very happy to return to being your patient when the right time comes. With love from your "extreme white coat effect" nun patient!
ReplyDeleteSuch a deep sadness and despair of what the USA has become. Your post gave me goose bumps.
ReplyDeleteyou speak my lungs, sister...
ReplyDeleteMy son-in-law is SWAT in Colorado. He said that by far he had more black people come up to him last night and say “thank you for helping out today” and “please stay safe tonight” than anyone else. It's an emotional time for all of us. We KNOW and acknowlege that "All Lives Matter", but until "Black Lives Matter" that's a hollow statement.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Susan. And yes, stronger medicine needed.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your support, everybody. I didn't really think this post was great shakes as poetry, but as a cry of pain it was certainly genuine. The murderers are being enabled by a model on high - I never forgot Trump once saying to some police force they should stop being so gentle with the people they were arresting...
ReplyDeleteGrazie Susan per dare parole a questo grande smarrimento che si prova assistendo a tutto quel che sta succedendo in America e nel mondo.
ReplyDeleteGrazie e bentornati in Italia a te e ad Alvin!
Grazie Catherine. Sento appunto uno smarrimento e un'angoscia tale da non poter restare in silenzio.
DeleteVery poignantly, you have expressed how abuse of power is so destructive to individuals and to a society. We are reeling, Susan.
ReplyDeleteThe Current Occupant, who began his tenancy in the White House calling white nationalist murderers very fine men, is now inciting the same to come and shoot up the ghettos - at least I personally cannot interpret his words and his phrasing and his tone of voice re “second amendment rights” any differently. And this, to be honest, I find really and truly scary.
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