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