Note: These poems are based off of protests that took place the weekend after the Breonna Taylor verdict.

Illustration by Phoebe Nerem

Only a few

are outside

the Mexican consulate

to march

in the name

of the forty-three

missing students.

They are worried —

how many more

has the government

disappeared?

—

Illustration by Phoebe Nerem

The sweat-studded woman’s megaphone voice

echoes into the squad car streets —

a dozen brothers and sisters in black

surround her, heads low for the murdered —

the silver-badged defenders chuckle

amongst themselves, turning occasionally

to spot a punch, or something.

“I’m tired of being silent,” cries the speaker,

her skin blue in the moonlight,

just Black in the cop-light.

—

Illustration by Phoebe Nerem

The next morning,

in front of the picasso statue —

a towering, brown mammalian angel —

hundreds of Black and Brown bodies

gather to reach out

with hands full of fresh roses

towards one another

and towards the hundreds

of beloveds in heaven.

Header image by Phoebe Nerem