All My Trials

So much discussion about the non-indictment of Michael Brown's killer. It seems every cop is granted double 'O' status when they leave the academy. Fourteen children have been killed by cops since that fateful day in August. Lots of analysis; lots of punditry. My favorite platitude this week? "We live in a nation of laws" A lot of well meaning people have been trying to answer the question "Why isn't Darren Wilson being charged with ... something?" Here's my attempt at an answer.

Look around 

Past row houses in Ferguson Missouri

Down the long antebellum rows of cotton

Look

Beyond the police line; the race line

The scarred line 

Jagged across Old Glory’s tattered furls

Look how it connects the money, the congressmen, the cops

And smell it … can you smell it?

The smoke, the tear gas, the rage

Ferguson is burning

Across the years, Atlanta is burning 

Resentment still settling

Like soot on sons of the south

Listen

Deep down in your soul

Listen

Your granddads Klan is tryin’ to be heard

“Lose your job?  … The colored man took it”

“High taxes?  … Shiftless welfare bums”

 “Angry? Afraid? … White privilege my ass!”

Now

Do you feel it?

Drumbeats pulsing in your brain

Feel it

A familiar tune

Faintly rising to the pounding beat

Hum it with me … Sing it with me

This is our song

“Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton …”

Vindicated

The murder of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman should serve as a slap in the face to all people of conscience. Racism is a cancer in America.

Vindicated

by Rick Lime

Who’ll we kill next

To show you uppity folks we're still the boss

I see your black president and raise you one, piss in his pants, Glock wielding, son of the south

Don’t you stand on my ground

Wad up your worthless VRA and shove it

This is my country

I make the rules

And I’m tired

Tired of your rap, your hoodies, and your god damned affirmative action

I’m tired of your poverty

And I’m tired

Of you

Blaming me

You want what I got?

Well, you can’t have it.

Serve me my burger

And yes Trayvon, I do want fries with that

Clean my room, rake my lawn

And then, go away

Go home to your rats in the Corn Flakes tenement

With your dead president hanging on the wall

Go home to your ‘pappa’s in jail’ apartment

Go home and keep out of my sight

Tonight

Listen up and listen good

In my country

Might does make right

And it’s not my fault
That you're not white

Another Burden

Both sides of the gun control debate in the US are now talking about race...sort of.

Another Burden
by Rick Lime

Into gun control Uncle Sam delves
As a bigger blight falls from his shelves
“This burden’s not fair
It seems too much to bear
 When they’re doing it all to themselves”