Most recent public comments by Sarah Merchlewitz https://nowcomment.com/users/12504 https://nowcomment.com/documents/29958?scroll_to=2830730 https://nowcomment.com/documents/29958?scroll_to=2830730 (Inspired by Aracelis Girmay’s “Night, for Henry Dumas”) Anthony Baez, 1964-1994, did not die in a hot air balloon or in a tempest out at sea but was strangled at 29 in University Heights. It was not a freak occurrence out of a blockbuster motion picture or a Jules Verne adventure story. Instead it is the usual game played by two teams shirts and skins. The cobalt shirts of Justice and the black and brown skins that don’t always bleed in their last moments but their blood turns blue for lack of oxygen. A touchdown victory dance for preventing domestic disturbance. After the game there was no locker room but a hospital room. It happened before to Dumas & Diallo & Till & Evers It happens still to Trayvon & Michael & Eric & Gurley No doubt it will happen again but will it be for my Anthony Baez, my student, in Washington Heights? Will it be Adrian & Jesus & Justin & Jean Poul “We can’t breathe!” The air growing thick with the black and brown souls leaving their bodies before their time. Children of someone remembered in photos and dark vestibule vigils. Someone else’s children who are also my own for eight hours a day and countless thoughts as I lay me down to sleep. And it seems before I wake, another gone from from our keep from our Chicago to the barrios to shining sea. “Go long!” “I’m open!” How can we play the game if the rules aren’t obeyed? Mon, 06 Jun 2022 18:03:27 -0400 https://nowcomment.com/documents/29957?scroll_to=302210 https://nowcomment.com/documents/29957?scroll_to=302210 Willie Perdomo is a Puerto Rican poet living in New York City. He wrote the poem "41 Bullets Off-Broadway" in response to the Diallo shooting. Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:03:57 -0500