Dark Roots

my mother took a switch off a branch

to whip my brother, he was hard to hold

he could not be controlled, so she called 

the police, two white cops came out, one  

took the rod from her hand and proceeded 

to do the deed. I trembled in horror and 

disbelief at the sight of my brother being 

beat, by the policeman through all of the 

grief inside of me,I could't speak,wondering. 

what would she have done, if they had 

handcuffed him and hung him from a tree?

did she know that was going to happen?

was she too scared to say something?

though I have never seen such thing, this can be 

trusted, that night I witnessed a lynching.