suf-fo-ca-ting

I can’t breathe

knee presses down on 

back of black neck face against hard world of pavement

officer’s white hand nonchalant inside pocket palm dry 

get up why aren’t you getting up 

trying to wrest free trying to breathe 

officer Tao by watches doing a balter feet shuffling 

ignores people’s urges to check pulse 

and George suffocates under white weight 

I can’t breathe 

virus invades lung lacuna filling spaces 

eyes pink body fevered nose runny nothing helps 

not even old fashioned mustard plasters 

only scarce breathing machines do the work 

and no one can witness hold a hand

outside hospitals we isolate inside 

keep apart six feet of separation

and suffocate under sheer latter-days loneliness 

I can’t breathe 

excess CO2 overwhelms this mother earth 

and forests turn to embers and species vanish vanquished 

while we embank our minds against truth 

spelled out in the clouds 

and by the young ones like Greta who whizzed through our world 

that suffocates under moneyed millions 

I can’t breathe

kestrals

klee klee klee 

these small falcons 

claimed home high in a spruce on the yard 

klee klee klee

curved beak between close set beaded eyes 

raying through my upturned cranium tilted up 

klee klee klee 

another joins ruffling brown feathers 

mating or fighting can’t tell 

klee klee klee 

fills air all other sounds from trees 

bow in silence 

as they hunt 

for grasshoppers or mice 

diving down to prairie grass 

klee klee klee 

and this is what we do 

watch listen

in this yard 

our invasion into leafy buggy living eco 

figuring out the 

klee klee klee

garden journal #1

something ate bean leaves 

little holes green lace on stem

wait for recovery