I have been writing a poem since the brutal murder of Tyre Deandre Nichols at the young age of 29 by aliens, better known as police barbarians, in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, from January 7, 2023, to his arrival at Peace on January 10, 2023. The poem, “Tommy and Nina,” is dedicated to Tyre’s memory.
It took a month to write, though poems usually take me a day. I was continuously tested and tempted to encourage killing members of this wicked alien clan by enforcing the same senseless tactics they afford us daily. It required a lot of stepping away to be able to return to a screen that would often offer nothing but hopelessness. After all, we are facing the continuous emotional holocaust of living through a physical genocide that knows no boundary beyond the alien clan.
If we must be killed without regard, then let our innumerable dead honor human virtues; those which the police breed cannot genetically inherit—of patience, restraint, forgiveness, fairness, equality, compassion, and reform among many.
The privileged and unlimited authority entrusted to criminal police forces globally must be limited in the wake of continuous abuse and mishandling of such power. The social model of democracy should not produce systemic institutional toxicity, even as a waste by-product. When dialogue is on equal ground justice prevails. As we shift discourse by power dynamics favoring a dangerously bigoted mob, we promote violent acts of prejudice.
Disarm authority to minimize torture.
