She Wanted to Become a Nurse
Carla M. Cherry
Portrait of Breonna Taylor on the fence of her uncle Terrence Taylor’s home in Louisville, KY. source: WDRB.com
Like her mother said,
Breonna deserved so much more than
a law in her name
that bans no knock warrants,
requires commanding officer review and
approval for all search warrants,
body cameras for searches,
affidavits required for search warrants,
risk matrices completed before an officer can seek
judicial approval for a warrant,
expanded random drug testing of officers,
a housing credit program to entice officers to
live in certain low-income areas in Louisville,
and twelve million dollars for her family
after the lawyers take their cut.
Mayor Fischer cannot begin to imagine Tamika Palmer’s pain.
America, the beau ideal of freedom and free enterprise,
innovator of the Three-Fifths Compromise,
Fugitive Slave Act and slave patrols,
The Black Codes and Jim Crow laws,
poll tax, literacy test, Grandfather Clause, and gerrymandering,
redlining and housing covenants,
the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,
forced sterilizations,
Shelby vs. Holder and gouging Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act.
The remover of mailboxes,
Great Defender against the fraud of early voting
cannot begin to imagine us free.
Brett Hankison, indicted by the grand jury
for three counts of wanton endangerment,
fired ten bullets, and five hit Breonna.
He only has to pay $15,000 bail.
Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, on administrative leave, no charges.
As of September 23, 2020, Daniel Cameron has not charged any of them with
with second-degree manslaughter.
Don’t dare ask us
to retire the hashtags,
put down our placards,
or celebrate the largest settlement for a black woman killed by police.
Carla M. Cherry is an English teacher and poet. Her work has appeared in various publications, including Eunoia Review, Random Sample Review, MemoryHouse, Bop Dead City, and Anti-Heroin Chic. She has published four books of poetry through Wasteland Press: Gnat Feathers and Butterfly Wings,Thirty Dollars and a Bowl of Soup, Honeysuckle Me, and These Pearls Are Real. Her fifth book, Stardust and Skin (iiPublishing) is forthcoming. She is an M.F.A. candidate in Creative Writing at the City College of New York. @carlabxpoet1