Dirge for Anthony

Out of uniform reach for my hip
Self identify, whip out a badge or weapon, you decide
React in swift self-preservation
Man-child murder the law in its optical organ
Meth wild-eyed  in Texas on a sticky night  with sticky tears
Regret every day in this life sentence.

Parents' circled prayers, incensed swirls reach heaven's gate, not fate that
Restrained the hand of the lyncher, limp dick governer
The highest court rules mercy always
Any other sentence, a disguised decree of partiality

Groan a dirge for Anthony Haynes the cop killer
Kincaid the good cop ever in danger, his kin still hum his requiem
Ruled a capital crime, so stumbled the ignorant child
He's served his time, no societal danger, just too tired to appeal

On death row and nowhere to go but under
Elude the date with the executioner no longer
I pray for your contrite soul, no chance to live the life your mother conceived
To marry, have children with long black eyelashes full of heart, and father intended
Just hope for another judicial review extending
Your dead life in this purgatory cell

A coin in the pinball machine of justice for profit, the cop on the beat,
The black boy drowning
In crystal panic attacks, converging prism sorrows of his ancestors
Throw a pretty penny in the wishing well of vigorous dissent.