how to say RIP | for Deoni Jones (murdered at 22 years old in DC on February 2, 2012)
by Kaylo Griot Saturday, February 4, 2012
Living in pieces
Of partial journalism
Buried wall posts
Google skimming
Living in pieces
Of memory
In minds
That could never
Forget what should
Never have to be
Remembered
I never knew you, Deoni,
But if I grew up a few miles away
We may have been friends
Maybe we met once on the red line
Waiting for the same train
Headed in the same direction
There’s nothing peaceful
In your death
Your final rest
Shouldn’t be anyway
You were still living
Living it up
Doing it up
And fabulous
There’s an eleven second
youtube video:
Man making his way
Across the intersection.
The DCPD say
It’s the guy
Who stabbed you
Is that true?
Was he the culprit,
The guy who weld the blade?
I think it’s bullshit
What they say.
I think it was the USA network
And all the other media outlets
Putting you down, leaving you out
And LGBT putting you last
I’m queer and questioning
Whether you knew
Before it happened
As legends always do
As legends always go
Did you see him coming?
Rushing you like newest wave
Of neo-nazi conservatism
Did you see your 22 years
Flashing before your eyes?
First the ones you never lived
Because of fear of worse than
Could imagine, the years
You thought of ending it
So many times.
Then the ones you lived
Despite fear of what’s imagined
The brutal hate to march through
Thick, condensed like an
Impossible heat.
Then the years to outlive you
The years you’ll never see.
I can only imagine
What you saw that night
The imagination produces
Glimpses of what your mind
Can comprehend
Or has seen before
We’ve seen it before
And I’m surprised I even heard
What happened
People who care say “So sad,” “RIP-rest in peace”
I say fuck that!
This isn’t sad
This attack doesn’t sadden me
This ripping away of life
Enrages me
Another flame added
To the burning wick
Burning down
To the ignition
Of a stick
Of dynamite
When will we explode?
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