What will I tell my students
After the news from Kenosha today?
Should I tell them that justice is blind
So the DA is okay?
Or do I speak the well heard cry:
No justice, no peace
To those who like angry dogs
Stretch the already taut leash?
Do I say if Jacob Blake
Would have simply put up his hands
None of this would have happened
No disturbance across the lands?
As I speak to them soon
About seven shots in the back
I’ll know what many of them think:
Because he was black.
How many more times
Will a black family ask it
Where is the justice
For my loved one in the casket?
And even when like Blake
The victims survive the shooting
Are their families suppose to say
“Be calm, please no looting?”
Maybe I must tell my students
Forget what they saw
Because change will only come
When they help write new law.
Is that sufficient?
Is that message good enough?
If it contains the rage
Will some say, “Good stuff?”
And soon we all retreat
To the places we’ve long realized
While Blake just lies there
Likely forever paralyzed.
Moretti's Musings 