Melissa Prunty Kemp

30 Day Poetry Challenge: National Poetry Month

DAY 3

 

 

 

A Ward Against the Murder of Black Males

-- for Joe O'Brien

 

Who can write

a charm

for black men

that will ward

being killed

perennially

perpetually

while on a candy run

walking down a school hall

shooting hoops in the gym

waiting for a yellow bus

riding a train

buying gas at a station

walking down the street

driving at night 

jogging, even in a park

at a family picnic

at a mother’s funeral

traveling with a white girl, even with permission

playing your music too loud

turning into the wrong driveway

going to a grocery store

feeding neighborhood kids breakfast

changing a tire

after “serving your country”?

 

What recipe

rhyming ditty

weaves magic Kevlar?

From the birth of William Tucker in 1623

to the death of Kendrick Johnson in 2013

to the conjure woman’s goofer dust

to the conjure man’s juju

to queens of French Quarter voodoo

to the pulpits’ firey brimstone

to moonwater and nightshade

to library stacks or philosophers’ tropes

Nothing has charmed away

the mind that murders

the heart that hates.

 

© 2014 by Melissa Prunty Kemp