TWO POEMS
KWANSABA ELEGY
FOR MICHAEL BROWN
__________________________________________________________
By Charlois Lumpkin
_______________________________________________________________
Tear gas shrouds police in mist trust
as tempers smolder, releas’n smoke curls of
wild hairs in turgid river, refus’n to
be tamed. Eyes flash forward to place
where long stemmed roses line Ferguson divide,
mark for, ever in memory, the angry
hallow’d point of Mike Mike’s last stand.
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson Missouri Police Officer. Michael Brown was eighteen years old and unarmed.
CUFFED AT THE CURB
careful
kick’n it down Canfield Drive
listen up
this ain’t no jive
don’t
talk smart
but don’t be too dumb
don’t
look angry
or hav’n too much fun
don’t
hang with too many
but don’t walk alone
don’t
walk too slow
n’ for God’s sake don’t run
“Cuffed at the Curb” first appeared under the pen name Mali Newman in the anthology Crossing The Divide, from the poets of St. Louis published by Vagabond Books in 2016.
KWANSABA ELEGY
FOR MICHAEL BROWN
__________________________________________________________
By Charlois Lumpkin
_______________________________________________________________
Tear gas shrouds police in mist trust
as tempers smolder, releas’n smoke curls of
wild hairs in turgid river, refus’n to
be tamed. Eyes flash forward to place
where long stemmed roses line Ferguson divide,
mark for, ever in memory, the angry
hallow’d point of Mike Mike’s last stand.
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson Missouri Police Officer. Michael Brown was eighteen years old and unarmed.
CUFFED AT THE CURB
careful
kick’n it down Canfield Drive
listen up
this ain’t no jive
don’t
talk smart
but don’t be too dumb
don’t
look angry
or hav’n too much fun
don’t
hang with too many
but don’t walk alone
don’t
walk too slow
n’ for God’s sake don’t run
“Cuffed at the Curb” first appeared under the pen name Mali Newman in the anthology Crossing The Divide, from the poets of St. Louis published by Vagabond Books in 2016.