Dear Redemption 1

I could have read about it;

I could have heard about it;

I could have been told, but

No, I saw the sweaty face

Of George Floyd, when he

Begged to breathe, when

He cried for his mother

Until he drew his last breath.

I saw the stoic face of that

wild-eyed cop staring back

at the camera, matter-of-factly.

I knew the KKK had in-

vaded police precincts,

That they are determined

To mock, attempt to

Erase my race

 

 

Dear Redemption 2

Children cram city streets

again, tired of cop killings

waiting for what failed

their forefathers more than

four centuries ago. They

are determined to die

for all that’s been denied them,

it seems, screaming, Black Lives

Matter! No Justice, No Peace!

unarmed, they have arrested

America. They’re holding her

hostage and, they will

until she screams

Freedom’s mutual!

And, she means it.

 

 

Dear Redemption 3

I pray that when we

Are the majority, we

Will not be like them.

 

Willie James King resides in Montgomery, Alabama. His work has appeared in several issues of Poetrybay, as well as in America, The Southern Poetry Review. He is the author of 5 books, his latest being To Be the Difference from Press 53.