from You Sleep While They Watch, released August 19, 2022
July 4th, 9 am
My mother called and said that Catherine’s dead
I woke up late, checked what the message said
She passed quiet in a hospice bed

And now my uncle’s on the same thing
He quit his job and won’t stop drinking
They pumped his stomach, with the needle in
He’s 61 and can’t say anything

Just like his father went the year before
We gathered silent by the window
When he stopped eating, started talking slow
They left his dinner by the bedpost

I called my sister back, July 10th
She just got home from a protest
Another cop just shot a young man dead
He was twenty, his name was Hakim Littleton

It happened fast, they said he pulled a gun
I watched them shoot him when he tried to run
They took his friend down, then they shut him up
Down by McNichols Road, on San Juan

The wake was quiet on the 15th
With my girlfriend and my family
A stranger came and said the rosary
And I spaced out and watched the tv

Julie showed up, started talking shit
And she said something racist
Emma called her out, and she went still
Then she went back to Bloomfield Hills

We watched the coffin go down, very slow
After my uncle bailed and went home
I didn’t feel much as the casket closed
At that point, it was time to go

—

And at the funeral I was weak
Not because the body stared at me
But from the father’s homily
When he said that she had achieved something

That she found beauty, she found peace
She was giving, she had everything
I watched them lower her deep
And couldn’t help but think she left us nothing