The Slighted Kentucky Rose
Updated: Jan 5, 2022

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.