"The Brave Last Stand": Face That Launched A Thousand Protests

A

nd then there was George Floyd the brave last stand

Face down on pavement, hands behind back, cuffed

Witness, aghast, 'What's your fellow man done?'
Armed, in packs, where stone has replaced hearts,
One kneels on his neck, the dragon roosts

Bones writhe, mouth gape open in throttled breath

Deep guttural yowls, cries, their pleading tucked;

'Ecce homo'—God, not one more soul plucked

Harsh and alone, groans, whimpers to one's own

Hoping one kindly soul hearkens, listens

To poor man's soul roaring, begging, crying

'Am I so wrong so they can gnaw my bone?'


*

N

o one can imagine, it's happening

But contemplate you are George. Who's he?

Flesh, blood, and tears—no less than you and me
The child, a mother's love once had smothered

Eyes, throat, lungs, shin bones... feel them, do they hurt?

Brutal, vicious to pretend unbothered
‘I can't breathe, please, Mama', his final heave

She who wove him once in a womb’s embrace—

The body prays; what’s stiff unlaces, yields

Earth’s belly thunders with her bosom pierced

Air, blood choke to hush... free like a Blackbird's
Song bellows out of this cage... pitch-black night.

George Perry Floyd Jr (October 14, 1973–May 25, 2020) was an African American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

by Fr JM Manzano SJ (Style mimics Poet Seamus Heaney's St Kevin and The Blackbird)