Amadou [Diallo]: did you mean dialogue? 

      Surely. Back and forth 41 times those guns went 

      between one another, debating red or blue, and

       yet, ineffectual in stopping the calamity, but so 

                                                                      goes politics.

                 Ousmane [Zongo]: did you mean Congo?
No difference: one is a nation of darkness, the

other an anthem of darkness. Just beat the drum,

damn it. Beat the drum.  

Sean Bell: did you mean Sean Bell?
                 With every pound he put into that marriage 

                  proposal, a toll he paid for a ring to mean 

                                                               something more.

                        [Tarika] Wilson: did you mean tarlike?
Is God white?  

Oscar Grant: did you mean Oscar Grant?
Tell me. What good reason could I have for not yet 

         visiting San Francisco other than him when I 

             already make people shake wherever I go?
 

                      [Aiyana] Jones: did you mean Aryan?
No, because holocaust’s face must always be that

of a victim, of a young girl.

[Ramarley] Graham: did you mean Bob Marley?
    No, because Mr. Graham didn't actually shoot the

        sheriff; the deputy was wounded by friendly fire, 

                                                                     don’t be fooled.

                   [Trayvon] Martin: did you mean traction? 

Yes, in the way that lynching, the first

quintessential American sport, has regained its

footing among a younger generation – no robes

worn, no fouls given, not a whistle to blow.

[Rekia] Boyd: did you mean riskier?
  Of course. There may be nothing riskier than being 

        a black woman in America: because of who you 

                         are, because of who you love, because. 

                          [Shantel] Davis: did you mean shunted?
Not with how that blood flowed, going wherever it

damn well pleased.

[Sharmel] Edwards: did you mean shame?
                                                                                 Yes.  

                       [Kimani] Gray: did you mean kimono?
I did indeed, if ignorance is a kind of silk.

[Renisha] McBride: did you mean relish?
      Only the day we heard the word guilty and wept

      from the barrels of our brown eyes what felt like 

             water, where before there had been only dust.

              Eric Garner: did you mean Eric Garner?
Nobody did, but it happened by someone’s hands,

stupid drunk with something, yet never bitten by a
cuff.  

Mike Brown: did you mean Mike Brown?
                                 No. I meant Hulk Hogan, clearly.

             [Tanesha] Anderson: did you mean tarnish?
Accurate.

[Tamir] Rice: did you mean tamer?
   As in, not twelve years old, but eleven? Ten? Nine?

                               Would that have been tame enough? 

                                         [C – ]: did you mean cortisone?
Well, now that does sound mighty glorious, a shot

to the heart I wouldn’t mind taking.