He waited for the bus.
They saw a threat.
He just existed.
They saw a black man.
He was not a man -
He was a boy,
Only eighteen -
Killed because of his skin.
Killed because of colour
two convicted.
Most acquitted.
On a technicality.
Double jeopardy.
He had dreams.
To his killers that didn't mean anything,
He wanted to be an architect.
They didn’t see him as a human being.
His name -
Stephen Lawrence,
And not with a ‘v’
His name was Stephen Lawrence,
Rest in peace, you’ll forever be alive in our memories
When the seconds don't flow with energy.
Don't wish to fight for the space, to be seen.
Essence doesn't fetch you double jeopardy.
Thoughts break through their own fences on the screen.
When I connect through pages of aged time.
My limbs that have run wild, now siesta.
The years lullabies and nursery rhyme,
being snapped away by an orchestra.
Tomorrow's melody, melting away.
Connect often with family and friend.
I admit my hair has turned silver gray.
Life's last journey - we will meet at the end.
10 syllables per line
Don't feeling victim
If you know you're the culprit
It's jeopardizing.
Risk
Falling
Into him,
Mysterious
Insight embracing
Feelings, exciting hearts
Flames in bold scarlet, rising
Like the morning startling the night
Freeing the soul from its darkness, love
Erasing all worries, the tears destroyed
By winds of yesterday’s grace, subsiding
Providing the nerve and strength needed
The dream traps doubt in its clutches
Freeing the mind to believe,
Feeling beyond our grasp,
Light falling softly,
Pleading whispers
Insights, stars
Twinkling
Fears
"Double Jeopardy"
Behind the clouds
the sky is always blue
the rain leaves
love returns
like an Ocean
to kiss your shores
washing mind
and heart clean
you write your
messages in the sands
they dissolve
double jeopardy
a new life begins
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
(the overhead railway in Berlin with a stop either side the Wall, one in the East, one the West, to be ridden with caution.)
I never took the S Bahn
you could end up on the other side
if you missed your stop and
unintentionally extended your ride.
There were so many stories
about the treatment you could get
when the train was searched
and you and the comrades met.
Every coach was checked
as they did their security round
with very little chance to sit quietly
and hope you wouldn’t be found.
The Stasi were the bogey men
the true inspirers of fear
always aware of the lure
of the west so enticingly near.
Escapees tried so many ways
lured by the call of democracy
ready to risk everything
for the chance of living free.
They said the beatings were severe
with not least the threatened hell
of unlimited hours confinement
in a dank and cheerless Stasi cell
and then the double jeopardy of
posted absent without leave
with the additions punishments
erring squaddies could receive.
No I never rode the S Bahn
that potential magnet to all
to try and sneak on board and
get to the Western side of the wall.
Chicago native Emmett Till would no longer be alive
after he was lynched in the state of Mississippi in 1955.
Till was on summer vacation in a village called Money.
It's located in the delta region of the river Mississippi.
The fourteen year old was beaten and shot in the head.
His body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River when he was dead.
Till flirted with a white woman in a grocery store, allegedly.
What really happened there remains a bit of a mystery.
The woman's husband and his half brother were the culpable party.
They were acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury.
Since the Constitution protects citizens against double jeopardy,
the two later admitted their guilt in a magazine's story.
This was one of the most infamous events in our history.
I thank wikipedia.org for information I obtained to write this poem
"Mesmerized"
I am
all of the
colours
in your mind
we dance our
fresh canvas
flirtatiously
brushstrokes
caressing
inquisitively
flowing
we blend together
effortlessly
Mesmerized
You are
all of the
colours
reflecting
in my eyes
Double Jeopardy
a cool seduction
hypnotized
(LadyLabyrinth / 2020)
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Amore (Playing The Orchestra 2013)
https://youtu.be/dMeDgrD4yXQ
Look at you now, nursing cavities
You're losing gravity, feeding your proclivities
Trying to maintain a high by creating new lows
You're up there but are you holding up?
You don't see it, but you are suspended...
Rag doll, held together by borrowed strings
There is an end to all things, and I mean it
This is the ultimate hi-jinks, it's the highest risk
It's like bungee jumping, high is low and high
Two in one, double jeopardy. It all comes down
The rubber breaks and you are dead
I'm here to observe and not judge, so be my guest
It's possible to watch mom and pop split and comeback together again. Possible to roll the sixties in today's movement. Honor a white man during Black History month so that that white man acknowledges our struggle three sixty five minus twenty-eight. It's possible to arise above a level of arousal, mentally achieving spiritual. Possible to rest in this. Become a martyr and live with it. A sort of double jeopardy, wouldn't mind experiencing it. The better part of bliss. The unexplainable "you'll be missed," so I decided to stay with, in order to define it. It's plausible isn't it?
At a poker table in a Deadwood saloon,
Wild Bill Hickok popped his last balloon.
He suffered the most ignominious of fates
while holding black pairs of aces and eights.
Bill was unexpectedly shot in the back of the head.
“Crooked Nose Jack” McCall rendered Hickok dead.
Wild Bill was playing a game of five card draw.
His assailant was someone he never saw.
Since the Dakotas were in Indian country,
McCall could not be protected from double jeopardy.
A second trial convicted Jack McCall.
He was left hanging by his neck, and that was all.
This was one of the legendary tales of the West.
Wild Bill Hickok was more popular than most of the rest.
I thank wikipedia.org online encyclopedia for information I obtained to write this poem.
Just when you think memories die
They say your life flashes before your eyes
Silent nights
Scripts of peace in a new born life
Hunger in days
Taken back less for what poverty weighs
A couple visits to I-C-U
Now as a ghost I see you
Pain inhabits reflection
My anger and aggression
Smiles and faces
child’s and different races
In my final poem
I lay it down a mercenary
Look to heaven with no commentary
Double jeopardy
A sinner plagued with leprosy
Broken jewels
In hands of an innocent man
It's going to be a little blood shed
For the faces that weren't fed
Walk as mortals on the day of the dead
Even in God's hands there’s a little bloodshed
Just when you think memories die
They say your life flashes before your eyes
Silent nights
Scripts of peace in a new born life
Hunger in days
Taken back less for what poverty weighs
A couple visits to I-C-U
Now as a ghost I see you!
Pain inhabits reflection
My anger and aggression
Smiles and faces
Childs and different races
In my final poem
I lay it down a mercenary
Look to heaven with no commentary
Double jeopardy,
A sinner plagued with leprosy
Broken jewels in hands of an innocent man
It's going to be a little blood shed
For the faces that weren't fed
Walk as mortals on the Day of the dead
Even in God's hands there’s a little bloodshed
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.