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