(Author’s note: I am a lifetime St. Louis resident. I saw what the police did to Michael Brown, Jr. and saw the city of my birth become a hashtag and a social come up. But, I am a writer. I write and record. I record and relive what I saw. -JBHarris #FergusonIsEverywhere)
Twenty-five:
Police set my city ablaze because
how do monsters know what sons they raise?
(c) JBHarris, 2019
(Note: The word ‘monsters’ here does not refer to the protestors or people of color. ‘Monsters’ refers to the institutional, systemic racism. ‘Sons’ here refers to murderous police officers and the biogoted systems that insulate them.)
Twenty-six:
It is the blood of one man was I freed;
With the blood of another I find out I was not.
(c) JBHarris, 2019
Twenty-seven:
In the land of a few proud and brave,
why is it that to be brave is not to live?
(c) JBHarris, 2019
