Poems

I am trying to figure this out. 

I don’t have the answer 

What I know: 

Our country has gone crazy 

Today is uncomfortable for most everyone. 

We can’t not talk about racism any longer 

We need to hear each other’s pain.

What I hear: 

Sirens, weeks and months of sirens 

the totemic sound of America today 

helicopters flying low overhead 

chants resounding through the steel 

and granite canyons:  

Say the name: Fill in the blank. 

The pop pop pop of flash grenades 

The close-range bang of rubber bullets 

Tear gas snaking through city streets 

Wooden batons cracking against bones 

I hear America breaking piece by piece.  

What I see (mostly on tv) 

Macy’s Herald Square on fire, 

Ominous graffiti of rage 

The Grand Concourse in shards 

of glass and looted merchandise 

Fort Greene a daily tinderbox 

Smell the brimstone in the air. 

I am so tired of all this winning. 

(next poem)