Broken Sword Publications LLC

They stabbed a guy here for $3 yesterday
the paper said the kids who did it were looking for gas money
and answers to questions never asked
Action News shoves a microphone in the victim’s face
they want to know how he feels,
even as he bleeds to death in the middle of a busy intersection
where the people are too preoccupied with their phones and coffee to care
the family wants to know why and
the camera’s eye turns to the audience
who has already changed the channel in search of the next fix

this all goes down on a daily basis
here in the jungle
where there are no bookstores to speak of
on the Black side of town
but there is lots of prayer to quell the masses
as their words of faith drip like molasses yet fail
to wash away the blood

city officials balk at progress
at relief
at grief
at anything other than a psalm
to restore the calm
among a city burning in flames and
drowning in ignorance

we all reap what we sow and when
suburbia no longer offers the protection of White flight
when the whole world is a ghetto
and not a soul can read
we will all say our prayers,
as meaningless as the ones whispered now
meant to serve as some kind of tourniquet
to the bleeding
and as useful as a $3 bill

©2010 Santino J. Rivera – Broken Sword Publications

From the forthcoming book “Bullets, Bibles and Other Tales of Southern Justice”