AUTHOR’S NOTE: I devised this short untitled form as a tribute to Laquan McDonald, a teen murdered on camera by Chicago Police in 2014. The form is sixteen syllables long (or four lines of four syllables). Police practices (abuse, enforcement, community relations, etc.), mass incarceration or public safety (or related issues) are the preferred subjects for this form. The sixteen syllables represent the number of times McDonald was shot.

1.

Police shootings

Don’t instill trust

In the people

They destroy it.

2.

Laquan was killed

By: ignorance,

Training, or

Jason Van Dyke?

3.

Dante Servin

Was “not guilty”

For slaughtering

Rekia Boyd?

4.

Hands up. Don’t Shoot!

Good policy

Regrettably

Lost in practice.

5.

Black Lives Matter

is not racist.

It’s a response

To racism.

6.

We’re not “suspects.”

We’re citizens

Cops are sworn to

Serve and protect.