July 3, 2018Redundancy Is Only a Problem When It Gets Repetitious:
a poem of patriotism
A kid was killed the other night in America
running from cops in America without a gun,
knife, egg timer or thermonuclear warhead in his hands
in America, his fault in America for not being made
of stone in America, shame on him. Statistically
I don’t have to tell you in America what color
his jeans were, you’ll assume blue in America
and be right in America ninety six percent of the time. King too,
had he been stone in America as he is now in DC,
wouldn’t have been shot in America, same for Lincoln
a short walk away in America, amid cherry blossoms
in America if I go when there are too many people
for my taste, I prefer Christmas
and having these men to myself in America
waiting for their statues to blink. Half a century
after King was popped in America, it’s still hazardous
in America for a lot of kids to bother being flesh
in America, they need to go straight to stone or steel
in America, the stuff we turn our dead heroes into
in America, need to be cold before their time
in America to survive being Americans in America,
and how many more times in America will I
and every other poet in America who’d rather
be writing about trees or the sadness
inherent to American expressionism in America
or love love love in America and maybe Amsterdam too
have to write as an American this god damn
bang bang another kid is dead for no reason
in America other than melanin in America poem?
from Poets Respond