Breathless

Breathless

The awful news takes our breath

away and after a long pause it returns

as a troubled sigh.

We all wait breathlessly for the decision

by those in control, those who have the facts,

the sordid details of the sad incident.

The seemingly unfair and racially biased

judgment knocks the breath out of the waiting

crowds, the nation, like a blow to the stomach.

Demonstrators and rioters are pushed back

by armed forces using tear gas that makes it

difficult to breath, to voice their cries.

The profiling attitude of the officer led him

to react without thinking, or taking a breath

to consider the accuracy of his assumptions

a breath or two to think about the source

of his fear and anger, or to reassess his

degree of force used.

He took away the breath of his suspect:

his breathless questioning, his breathless

pleas, his gasping fear for his life.

He took his breath away:            Forever.

The act exposed a deep abnormality,

a shamefully persistent, widespread attitude

that we all must work to correct.

Fight to correct:

                                     to our last breath.

                                    --W.E. Hudson

                                      12/05/2014

                                             First published in Eyezine.