4/29-30/92- I Hate Where I Live (part 2) (a prayer for Los Angeles)

                                                    4/29-30/92

          I Hate Where I Live (part 2)
                   (a prayer for Los Angeles)

Utter disbelief
When beating a man with a stick 56 times
Is not a crime
Powerless
As a black man face down on Foothill Boulevard
While I watch the city burn
Angry people breaking bottles and bones
Rabid christening of innocent drivers
Upon an asphalt cross

Anger becomes opportunity
Greed becomes a slashing razor
Across upturned wrists and straining necks
The blood of progress spilling quickly
Into the littered streets

Sadness to the very core of my being
Is as close as can be written here
To the way I feel
Through the icy numbness
And flickering anger

So tonight I offer a prayer
To this city and it[base ']s people;
To the firefighters prevented from their duty and their safety;
To the peace officers who are trying to live up to their title;
To the innocent and the honorable,the naive and the pure;
To the angry who chose to protest in a peaceful,mature way;
To the victims of the mayhem,jobs and business burned away;
But most of all,to the violators of this city's many corners
Besides harming trees and buildings
They left a spot on L.A.'s soul.


My heart extends to mankind
Once again we show our defects
Why must we prove our humanity
In such a sad and horrible way?

(at 3:25am, 4/30/92,Los Angeles continued to burn...)