Innocence after Khaliifah

By Fatima Jalloh

Innocence

abstract as your heart beating in your chest

Khaliifah Marcellus Williams our 2024 tragedy

the backbone of our lives, we gather

once again on this field as mourners

this mourning we wake to a 6:00pm lynching

Innocence

abstract as losing your breath

Khaliifah our 2024 tragic hero

as poets, every one loss a forsaken world

again on this field of mourners, mourning our forsaken world

this mourning we realize that we are too innocent poets

Innocence 

as abstract his metaphor

My brother, in this darkness

we seek something in your remembrance

and whatever we can’t find

we mourn