Today is the 20th anniversary of the killing of Amadou Diallo by New York’s “Finest.”
All those years ago, I wrote the following poem, which is included in my collection, “Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats”:
ON A BRONX STREET AFTER THE AMADOU DIALLO TRIAL
Wrinkled black baby flesh
Held in trembling wrinkled black hands.
(SHOUTED) “Kill him now! You may as well kill him now!”
It was a scene reminiscent of Abraham
In the land of Moriah,
A father offering his son as a sacrifice.
(SHOUTED) “Kill him now! You may as well kill him now!”
As clueless as Isaac,
As innocent as the babe he was.
If he could only talk, like Isaac.
“Father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
It is a tale as old as the Bible:
God requesting a burnt offering;
Pharaoh commanding every Hebrew boy
Be thrown into the Nile;
Herod killing all the children
In and around Bethlehem
Who were two years or under.
Wrinkled black baby flesh
held in trembling wrinkled black hands.
(SOFTLY) “Kill him now! You may as well kill him now!”
The above referenced book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sometimes-Blue-Knights-Wear-Black/dp/1481722867/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549279733&sr=8-1&keywords=sometimes+blue+knights+wear+black+hats
Easy Waters 