Home » Poems » Freddie Robinson Jr. » Arrested Anger

Arrested Anger



They arrested my anger:
my fingertips, they ink painted
These defiant ebony eyes
were given a sideway rearview 
racial profile
A police photo shoot, 
criminal style
I became a most colorful, unwanted poster child
for the rabid redneck white crowd,
who were firing their burning blue metal barrels
hatefully loud — 
Colt-45 liquid anger
white lightning moonshine proud
Waving their patriotic hostility — 
raging river flag moving the mob 
At their Wild West campfire pow-wow,
they were bomb fuse sparking
a tar baby effigy of me
Putting a viral vex on their personal celly-ies 
and cyber telly-ies
Got several death threats from the skin heads 
Aryan Nation neo-Nazis
How is it that my anger got arrested,
while their’s got out of jail free?
The blue devils cuffed me
for non-violently speaking, 
not bending a Wounded Knee
Or giving a whipped-dog look slave master bow
This earned me my prison stripes 
room-and-board free
Got a felon record for simply 
giving the fascist police a ghetto hardship scowl
Now labeled a rebel convict:
I can’t get no cotton-picking union job,
or no southern hospitality northen beans welfare
Living on the cliff ledge is hard, when you can’t blend in
Yellow tin badge hollow justice
gave me a white-hot iron brand hex on my charcoal skin
Then they bum wrapped me in a cement bubble
And an old enamel kangaroo in a long black lynx robe
said I was white rabbit lucky 
I didn’t receive a volley of bullets for my trouble
But, I got a swollen-face good break, I was told
Tell my mama this cancer piss pack of hard spit sympathy lies
She died on the inside that awful sentencing day,
and my papa’s fears aged dog years in a bad way
They both knelt stone cold six-feet under,
while I was hell-roasting
in a 20-by-20 windowless solitary bunker
There were no encouraging letters sent from the grave
I’m sure my arrested anger
is gonna get released also, one calm and serene day
But a pardon ain’t forthcoming 
any time soon
for these brooding hairs fading in penitentiary gray

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FJ Thomas

Date: 4/7/2018 4:57:00 PM

Beautifully crafted justified anger. One day we will see this no more Freddie.

Kai Michael Neumann

Date: 3/30/2018 2:39:00 AM

Wow. I am speechless. Your words. And the anger and injustice. I read this a few times and it speaks to me on my safe arm chair of privileged being...Thank you for sharing, Kai

CayCay Jennings

Date: 3/29/2018 1:08:00 PM

Since my youth I have cried over man's treatment of man & wish I felt the world was improving. Perhaps it actually is, I've seen many leaps since birth, but good is quiet and violent ignorance is not. This is well-written, the delivery captures the topic and the reader, Freddie, but I want more - I want it to lasso change! Why the simple fact that we are all God's children, brothers and sisters, isn't enough to persuade truthful living is something I'll never understand. Blessings - CayCay