Even if the Cops came Today,
They’d just Add to the Death Toll²
The Cop Pulls us over for Dreaming³
Because White men can’t Police their
Imagination – Black people are Dying⁴
We Test the Humanity those who Wear a Badge⁵
The Criminals and the Police are the Same people⁶
Police cause trouble Everywhere – the people
Who should be Protecting us take us Off the
World just as much as they Keep us in it⁷
Shot Dead by the Police for asking to
Stop being Shot Dead by the Police⁸
If you hear of me Dead any where
Near a Cop – that Cop Killed me⁹
Prediction: the Cop will go Free
And the Boy will still be Dead¹⁰
¹ Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
² Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
³ Ocean Vuong, Beautiful Short Loser
⁴ Claudia Rankine, Because White Men Can’t
⁵ Laura Hershey, The Gamble
⁶ J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
⁷ Nile Lansana & Onam Lansana, Lesson one
⁸ Efe Paul Azino, The Defiance of Flowers
⁹ Jericho Brown, Bullet Points
¹⁰ Danez Smith, Not an Elegy