Ed. note: Over the next few days I’ll be posting responses to the murder of Michael Brown and non-indictment of Darren Wilson. Prose, poems, essays, collages, music, photos from vigils/rallies, and film for inclusion can be sent to birdsoflace@gmail.com
This Violent Apathy
Maybe on the way up
Or on the way down
Or finally on the level—
But still the need
To be leery:
Of breathing
Snakes, of hoods,
Of people sitting
Under trees.
Unfaced others,
We’re tired of hiding
In our sleep
Try slipping into
Our wildest
Dreams, into our
Regular dreams,
Into our most casual
Of daydreams;
Smoky nightmares
Still—they’ll hang
The same indelible marks
Unsafely on our neck,
But God Damn,
Shade back and
Shade back and
Oh
My
God
Shade the fuck back.
Make them look.
Make them see.
Lord knows they
Don’t hear the
Screams.
–Robert Alan Wendeborn
