(Free Write Poem, in honor of Emmett Till, And in dishonor of she who caused his death. Rise in Power, Emmett)

(written following the death of, and directed at the memory of, the white woman whose lies caused Emmett’s murder, and whose name- like everything else of the system that bore her- deserves to be lost forever in the Tallahatchie mud, as her husband wished all trace of Emmett to be lost)

You tried

to

slip

away,

Unnoticed…

You tried

to avoid

Attracting

Anyone’s

Awareness

That

You

Were

Departing

The

Surface

Physical

Level

Of

The land

of

Mississippi

Which,

In Objibwe

Means

“Great River”,

The land

Defined

By what flows

Through

And by

It

Feeding

Its living

Concealing

Or trying