Keith M. Kelley | Poet

Messenger: St. Louis woman did 20 days in jail for speeding; now rural Missouri judge wants her for 6 more months.

1.

Yet another case

Of mass incarceration

Targeting black folk.

2.

She was: caught speeding,

Did her time, and paid her fines.

But that’s not enough.

3.

The deal was bogus.

Breathing while black
Breathing fresh air polluted by hate
Hate is suffocating
Hate of non-white skin
Skin is only skin deep
Skin should not determine privilege
Privilege bestowed upon the white
Privilege denied to the black
Black America is a lost colony
Black America is still America
America the united states of
America the beautiful
Beautiful people
Beautiful conceptually speaking
Speaking to the base
Speaking in English that is broken
Broken like truths held self-evident
Broken like promises of freedom
Freedom denied
Freedom of speech
Speech is costly
Speech is wasted
Wasted like education
Wasted like victims of being black
Black America is a lost colony
Black America is still America
America the united states of
America the beautiful
Beautiful minds give birth to
Beautiful dreams
Dreams of paid debts
Dreams we wake up and forget
Forget black history never taught
Forget to keep breathing
Breathing while black
Breathing fresh air polluted by hate
Hate destroys
Hate consumes like fires
Fires that rage after droughts
Fires next time Baldwin wrote about
About race
About face
Face the music we try not to hear
Face the nation has a bad track record with colored people
People with vaginas people with penises who love people with penises
People perpetually persecuted through prison pipelines for being black
Black America is still America
Black America is American
American
America

Children are the “collateral damage”

when their mothers are incarcerated.

Grandparents are often left to manage

Little people to whom they’re related

The separation anxiety,

Angry misbehavior, and confused rage

Would test even a saint’s sobriety

Trying to explain why mom’s in a cage!

Legal aid, circle keepers, and churches

Try to mitigate familial schisms.

Toddlers subjected to body searches

To visit their mommies inside prisons.

Thankfully, Reunification Rides

Help families cope while moms are inside.

A woman puts her laptop and coat on the next table, looks right past me, and asks the white woman on the other side of me to watch her stuff! Karma is funny. The white woman left moments after she went to stand in line! I smiled at her when she returned, and saw the vacant seat next to me.

Once arrested, arraigned, tried, convicted

And incarcerated, to “pay their debt.”

Though their time’s been served, they’re still restricted.

They’ve walked out of prison- but ain’t “free” yet!

Their liberty comes with consequences.

They are stalked by their pasts like Jean Valjean.

Uncaged birds with clipped wings perch on fences.

The debt they thought they paid still lingers on.

For “second-class citizens” in the hood

This mandated marginalization,

Supposedly for the “greater good,”

Pigeon-holes them into isolation.

Barriers such as these, let’s not pretend

Will more than likely make them re-offend.

They come to “rough it” in urban settings

in stark contrast to those from whence they came.

Suburban thrill seekers “hunting” big game.

Air be and bees or nightly subletting?

They set out to explore their surroundings:

walking sticks in hands; cameras in tow;

rapid transit maps guide them as they go

hiking through urban jungles- hearts pounding!

They smile, nod, and try to keep it moving

as they pass natives who may be restless.

Discomfort exposed by their cheeks’ redness,

thoughts of stereotypes they might be proving.

They came seeking exotic diversion.

What they got was poverty immersion.