Lon Wartman Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

I wrote this poem last year after the strangulation of George Floyd.  I decided it was time to release it after I saw the arrest of a lieutenant in Virginia this morning.   This was a sad, really sad moment in our nations history.  So much needs to change and I am not a black man.  

Lynching

“Lynching”

Black man floating in space
Knotted rope about his face
Crosses burning
White sheets chanting

Black man squirming     
Blue knee choking 
Buildings burning
Dark nights looming

A noose from a tree
A boot and a knee
A black man dead
No one lead

Gutters vomiting
Jesus faltering
Canisters of tears
Scattering fears

Memories from the past
Recall the last
Nothing changed
Our nation estranged

Horrible brutality
Watching reality 
A hang man’s stage
Millions enraged

Dusty roads
A hang man’s noose
Burning streets
A black man pleading

So much the same
It just insane 
Equal justice
No longer trusted

Civil unrest
A nation stressed
Yet we care
When tempers flare

Doing it right
With all our might
We all must listen
As rattlesnakes hissen 

It begins in the mind
You learn to be kind
We are all blood inside
Where love resides

It is not right
That I am white
And am not black
But my soul is cracked 

I FEEL YOUR PAIN....  
As George was slain
I watched it all
His terrible fall

Again and Again
Again and Again

A henchman calling
A nation bleeding 

Again and Again
Again and Again

Crosses burning
Mindsets never learning 
It was a lynching 	


							Lon 6/1/2020

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L Milton Hankins April 12, 2021 at 8:16 AM Yes, it was, Lon, and I have been so saddened by the senseless shooting of black men. It was hard to believe that a policeman would treat one of our men in uniform (and he was in uniform) so crassly and callously! Lon Wartman April 14, 2021 at 8:05 AM My sentiments exactly I wonder when we will treat all as equals. As poets we must rise to the occasion and denounce these sad, very sad happenings.