The Slighted Kentucky Rose

I don't know which is crueler

To behold

Ju'Niyah's intelligent, resolute despair

On my television screen,

Or the familiar sick pull in my gut

As I watch one more audacious, beautiful Black woman betrayed.

Louisville, was thirty-five rounds not enough to defile

Her home

Must you pretend that justice has been served

While you slink away!

This Southern lady knows had Breonna

Been Brigitte, a debutante at the Country Club Ball

The white-gloved hand of justice would not wave her fate away,

Officers would pay dearly for destroying a precious Kentucky rose.

Had that Kentucky rose

Been the body bag on its way to hospital

Her blood pooling in stains on her satin gown,

A Breonna would surely rush to save her, without ever being named.