DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His poems and short stories have been published extensively in the small press, in the US, and abroad. His first collection of short stories called “Unaccustomed Mercy,” published by Studio Books, is available at the Amazon Kindle Store.
before nightfall
alvin wants to reach home
before nightfall
but his flimsy slippers
make it impossible
to move faster
time is on the run
& the warmth
has left the sun
this time my dear
he whispers
i'll take my pills
& do what you say
i promise
i'll be good
alvin slows to a stop
& steadies himself
clouded eyes
scan the distance
just ahead
there it is
his house
patients turn
toward the old man
as he stops
wandering the walls
& shouts out her name
for a split second
the fragile illusion
floats over the ward
then settles like dust
to the tile floor
leaving
only the cadence
of a ticking radiator
to fill the space
between each heartbeat
_____
Trayvon Who?
in the men's restroom
at the local waterhole
just above the urinal
these big black letters
are scrawled: "FUCK TRAYVON MARTIN"
just below someone has added:
"TRAYVON WHO?"
i lean against the wall
& try to estimate
the weight of these words
how do you calculate
the implications
bound up
in such weary musings
is there any way
to alleviate
that much hate
how many more ashes
must be sacrificed
to the wind
how many more bones
must be fed
to the ever-busy
ever-needful beast
before it is satiated
i stand
i wait for it to come
a revelation
an explanation
something
anything
silence
a void
as cold as jupiter's moons
i walk out the door
& lose myself
in the white noise
of rowdy patrons
re-fighting
the familiar unfinished battle
against the ever-encroaching
doo-dah
living & dying
in this rotting ghost town
of collapsing cotton mills
& overworked churches
a paranoid world
where fear
accumulates like dust
in every dark corner
Trayvon Martin died
from the hole in his heart
facedown in the blood
& rain-slicked grass
the unfortunate demise
of another nondescript
nobody
Ellison's "Invisible Man"
Trayvon Who?
~DB Cox
~DB Cox
