A Deputy Chief Recommended Dismissal Long Ago
How It Happens
While running from the officer
in full sprint
Carrying an already unpackaged bb gun in an Ohio Walmart
where open-carry is legal
While driving away from an officer during a traffic stop
Jumping on windshields in the night
high as the moon
In a yard beneath an avalanche of blue
While prostrate
During a mental break at home
While handcuffed
Sitting at a park table
hands tucked into pockets
Sliding around the police van floor like loose change
In your holding cell
Sleeping on your grandmother’s couch
After your bachelor party
Seeking rescue after a car accident
Standing in a crowd
–Ashaki Jackson
***
Ashaki M. Jackson is a social psychologist and poet. She is a Cave Canem alumna whose work appears in CURA, pluck! and Prairie Schooner among others. Writ Large Press published her chapbook, Surveillance, in March 2016. A second chapbook, Language Lesson, is forthcoming from MIEL. She lives in Los Angeles.
One response
Is this then “the news that stays news”? I hope and pray it becomes someday a poem of horrors past; a kaddish for a time that transformed its people, sewed wisdom where ignorance had harvested such misery until we had our fill forever.
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