Ankle Bracelets
Clink-clink
Black panther eyes peering
thru the concrete canopy
What do they see in the blood-smoke midnight air ...
safari sound waves shocking,
moving the ghetto leaves
What do the tree leopard tar-pitch, onyx ears hear ...
a white rhino with a little horn tooting
Bars and Stripes liberty hypocrisy
Star Spangled dirge played off-key at the trade fair
Clink-clink
Sea Leviathan white whale with the little blowhole,
sending suffocating sounds
leading down to the burning belly of hell
Muzzled lions and lionesses in the dark cargo hold,
chained to the smell drowns
of fear excrement waist-high in a caged cell
400-year journey on a piss-poor promise of equality —
build the racial Wall higher:
says the Tower barker, spitting in the tiny trumpet
Clink-clink
Gold-plated iron ankle bracelets ... slavery jewelry,
place a bid to the auction buyer
Give the seller a pound of the flesh, free-labor sweat
Clink-clink
Don’t think ... run when you hear this
coming calamity chain-pain sound
Head skin deeper into the safe urban jungle,
until the little horn fades
into muted white noise background
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2018
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