Audre Lorde Knows What I Mean – 2021 in review - 8. Part Eight: Random Acts of Harshness

“We cannot be satisfied until all our people

have equal opportunities for jobs, for homes,

for education, for health, and for political expression;

and until all our people have equal protection under the law.”

—Harry S. Truman, ^[i]

February 2nd, 1948

Part Eight:

Social Justice III

XLVII.

Random acts of harshness pervade,

In this world we’ve let come to be,

And take the form, which by default,

Seem most brutal for us to see.

Shotguns amid peaceful protests,

Blood all over the pavement too,

Men murdered by a teenager

More evil than they ever knew.

Random, older, women in cars,

Flying into a rage when they

See BLM candle vigils,

And plow right into them to slay.

Acts of smash and grab, no matter

Neo-Nazi arson to blame

On peace-filled anti-fascist crowds,

Or kids in jewelry stores – it’s the same.

Random act of harshness allowed

To strike dread in all and run free

Through a land where Reason is scorned,

But Lord Mayhem rules by decree.

So, do we let the cities burn?—

Call in the troops to enforce curfew?—

Fold our hands and pray for some calm

When the God we’ve made has no clue

How the human heart makes caprice

The very center of its fame,

Acting out in base randomness

Because harshness is its only game. [ii]

XLVIII.

“I want my dad!” is all the girl said,

The 9-year-old, handcuffed,

Already sitting in the back of

A cop car, before she was pepper sprayed.

Not random acts of violence led bored,

Uniformed, white-mom cop, to shake up

The can of mace like a spray can

Of paint, and with malice aforethought,

Hurt the little girl under her sham title

Of ‘protection.’

“I want my dad!” and tears from a

Scared little child, manhandled roughly,

Brutally by white hands throwing her in

The snow – “I want my dad!” So bad

A crime, a third-grader “Required”

To be traumatized for life by cops who

Just wanted to get home to their own kids.

“Just spray her at this point!” the male cop said,

And the white mom-cop shook up the can

And did so with non-random, non-loving

Hatred in her bored – I just want to go

Home – heart. [iii]

XLIX.

Over the shoulder of Washington,

Ben. Franklin spied a half-sun

Carved into the back of America’s chair.

He wondered if the effigy’s light

Denoted a rising or setting sun;

And now we know the answer. [iv]

L.

I read in the paper

How the Rittenhouse verdict made

Arbery’s mother “Anxious,”

And the sight of it broke my heart.

Why is it justice has to be

So touch-and-go in our country?

A cold-blooded murder by gun

Wielded by any color hand –

By crook or cop of any stripe;

By self-appointed vigilante

Of any political bent –

Should receive the same court sentence.

But, in our touch-and-go country,

Cold-blooded murders get sorted

By the wielder’s color of hand;

By their RAP sheet or police badge;

By self-spouting vigilante

Polarizing as excuse,

So they don’t get the same sentence.

I read in the paper

How the Rittenhouse verdict made

Arbery’s father “Upset,”

And the sight of it broke my heart. [v]

Saint Rittenhouse,

The Right’s new idol

Is less man than mouse.

A mortar smashed

By a pestles’ shamelessness

Is a crucible waiting to be dashed.

And endless chicanery,

Glib as a teenage grin,

Their new idolatry.

LII.

Say Their Names II

Harum-Scarum backlash . . .

The powers that be

Lash out in ways reckless,

Irresponsibly set

To demonstrate to us

Who remains in control.

Just think how Colinford Mattis

And Urooj Rahman have fared,

Falsely arrested in Brooklyn

For ‘disrespecting’ a cop car

Already burned out by others,

These two privileged-but-Black lawyers

Were hauled in like common vandals.

After completing bail hearings

For the hyped-up, unprovable

Vandalism charges, they were

Released on bond amounts fitting

To such inconsequential ‘crime.’

Then, after being home, a “judge” –

So-called, ‘cause a Trump appointee –

Had them arrested again, and

Held over for trial without bail.

Say their names: Colinford Mattis

And Urooj Rahman still rotting

In a New York city jail today.

Harum-Scarum backlash . . .

Say the name of Terron J. Boone,

Cop-killed less than two weeks after

His brother Robert Fuller was

Hanged on a tree outside L.A..

Coincidence L.A. sheriffs

Would just happen to go looking

For a lynching victim’s family

To make further “example” of?

Of course, conveniently for them,

Their body cameras were turned off,

So it’s their word of what happened

Against that of a dead man. Nice.

Harum-Scarum backlash . . .

Or Helter Skelter scheme –

Have boogie-woogie days

And cop nights of “slaughter”

Been happening all along,

To prove who’s in control? [vi]

I won’t lie –

The sight of the triple conviction

Made me cry.

And here’s why –

Knowing Arbery’s parents saw justice

Filled my eye.

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