reading news for months of only corona headlines
just when I wonder…how does it end?
suddenly, it’s gone
states just decided to open up, as though it never existed
and thousands of lives weren’t really extinguished
only to have one life grab headlines
spark anger
reading news for weeks of nothing but tensions rising and fear mounting
fear of living, fear of simply existing
fear that brings a grandmother out into the front yard
in her housecoat and walking cane
to cover up her grandchild who is panicking
police training their guns on him as he lays across the lawn
knowing there is nothing he can do to stop the bullets
from finding his body
laying still on the grass, crying for help, raising his arms
no action or non-action will be enough to
save him
from his skin
and my own news sends me to my heartland
where already rumors fly
of doctors willing to kill to gain ten- grand
for every body lost to corona
no one knows what to believe when streets talk
and life is worth a mere 10k
I see the connection
between the panic that assumes
a doctor could murder so easily, so quickly,
so callously
because the white man called
with money in his mouth
and the killing of blacks
across the ocean
just for being
in the way
of privilege.
