Mass shooting

Graffitti posters on wall; somewhere in Oakland (photo: arnoldo colibrí)

No one hardly

praises

our children

till they’re shot down on the streets

Desi’s mural

did not ward off

the bullets

or the liquor stores

that blew holes

in the soft bodies of teenagers

and the livers of hopelessness

Hip hop has one more one less

octosyllabic story

to rhyme

Now not even a street corner altar

No candles

No balloons

No empty bottles of

Hennessy

no photographs

no vigils

Just the ghosts

and their unarmed drive-by cries

The new mayor sends

prayers

and

more police

to push our dead off the sidewalks

into Santa Rita county jail

the school of the future

the resting place of our martyrs-to-be . . .

January 28, 2023