I                                    WAS                                    THERE 



I was there on the day
When MLK
Marched against the walls

And special spigots
Came in shades
Coffee and beige

Buses with reserved
Seating
Coffee and beige

Human flesh
Burned
Kerosene scented wafts

And grannies broke
Rules drinking
In the park

And said,
"I don't want to
Walk all that way

Back there."

Life echoed
Passing on
Unkempt white porcelain

To dogs' howls
Biting hands unfit to feed them

Or eat their food

Gas and
Gasoline soaked rag beer bottles

And clubs
Billy and sap
Nightclub nightmares

Nightly newscasts
In black and white
Reporting uncolored news

While, in living color, walls ran crimson

Hangman not a game on a page

"DON'T CUT DOWN THE CORPSE!"

Hoodies not for football games

Faces not for publication

I swear I was there

But I forgot

And forgetting
Danced anew
to rubber bullet ballets
In your face mace
Clowns standing their unholy ground
DWB
Broken tail lights
Speeding at 31
Ferguson dead sons
Driving to blast
Through walls
On the exit ramp
To a freeway
Marked MLK
In memory of the man
Who's footprints
Lie lost in the dust
His Selma truth
Submerged in the drone
The harangue of foxy orangutans
Eating their own vomit
Clueless in their studios
Defining perfect hair
Denying the kinks
Missing the point of the question

"Why am I STILL here?"

Merely responding

"Why aren't you over it?
I am."

And suddenly
We are there

Again



Copyright 2015, W. Hayes