"Unrest in Baton Rouge"
                                               
                                               after the photo by Jonathan Bachman


Our bodies run with ink dark blood.
Blood pools in the pavement’s seams.

Is it strange to say love is a language
Few practice, but all, or near all speak?

Even the men in black armor, the ones
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else

Are they so buffered against, if not love’s blade
Sizing up the heart’s familiar meat?

We watch and grieve. We sleep, stir, eat.
Love: the heart sliced open, gutted, clean.

Love: naked almost in the everlasting street,
Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze.

Bachman, Jonathan. “Lone Activist Ieshia Evans Stands Her Ground While Offering Her Hands for Arrest As Riot Police Charge towards Her…” Jonathan Bachman Photography, 9 Jul. 2016, www.jonathanbachmanphotography.com/portfolio#I00004muFp75cdHk. Accessed 31 Mar. 2024.

Smith, Tracy K. “Unrest in Baton Rouge.” Wade in the Water. Graywolf Press, 2018, p. 46.