Posted by by Alagi Yorro Jallow
déjà vu-
“I can’t breathe” George Floyd’s
Draws comparison to Eric Garner of New York
George Floyd and Eric Garner can’t breathe
Police officer Pantaleo chokehold Eric to death
Both murdered in police bestiality and racism
Police Officer Derek Chauvin, put his knee
And squeezed George Floyd’s neck
Slowly for 60 seconds,
Another 60 seconds
And then watch it kick its little legs,
And another long 60 seconds,
Until liquids would have come out
Of its little mouth.
And Derek Chauvin squeezed it some more,
Another 60 seconds. Derek squeezed it
Another slow 60 seconds
Until it would have gone limp.
Can you imagine the mind it takes to do that?
I didn’t. Never could.
George Floyd, the knee on his neck
And Eric put in a chokehold
In New York and In Minneapolis,
The savagery of their claws
Are still profoundly felt in the blighted pores
Of negroes and all peoples of color
Long dead may be racial segregation laws
But lives, their ghosts still haunt and devour
All over America intact still is the ugly picture
Of a police system so racially flawed.
However, no, to death was Eric and George floored.
Their nose was on the cold tar rubbed
Their face, against a hard surface, brushed.
Their neck, knee-pinned as he coughed
“I can’t breathe,” they yelled to all.
“My neck…stomach…everything hurts”.
They desperately sobbed and urged
Chauvinist Derek Chauv and Daniel Pantaleo
In refused to budge
Brandishing a grin implacably murderous
Arresting officers of the four killer-cops
Short in build, of Asian-American Blood
Kept a pacing watch, in sadistic pleasure
As Eric Gardner, “a lesser being” on the ladder of color.
Was being of his humanity and life robbed
For help dying Eric Garner called
As they struggled very hard to talk
Thirsty for water, he faintly called
Just like Jesus Christ did on the Cross
But the unyielding, applied arms and knee force
In the end, they broke their larynx and vocal cords
Mouth silent, eyes closed, consciousness lost
Both were pitilessly stretchered out of the world
The promise of equal treatment of all by law
The groans, the begging to breathe
Eric and George all painfully died
