Primary
Red red
A most abused word
So mono-syllable simple
it’s really quite absurd
As hue, primary
spectrum’s anchor end
In tight knit group of seven
Seven
seven
One more than six
One less than eight
But seven are all I know
Name
names
George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Tamir Rice
Sandra Bland
Trayvon Martin
Botham Jean
My voice trails off
Lost
lost
though hundreds more
it’s like their stories get caught
in some cruel revolving door
spinning out of my mind
I curse my memory
decry my failing
hu-man
Forward
forward
making rhymes, biding time
pretending life just moves on
at least until the next name
writ in blood upon this shameful list
and I become RIGHTEOUSLY enraged
sickened and depressed
all over again
Red
Red
Oh the way I think of red
forever tainted you see
like original innocence
now lost to me
Red no longer
Pri
Mar
Y
Red blood
thick currents in our streets
the blood of these martyrs
who died and die still
for reasons
I can’t understand
