If you're dreaming

if you know

you are dreaming

eat dessert

first

fear and rage

Already they have begun to spin

to twist the story into its usual shape

formerly familiar, suddenly terrifying

because how many others have we

dismissed because this was the only

story told:  armed black man

shots were fired              handgun

recovered at the scene.

How many times did we not know

the details not reported by police accounts

routine traffic stop      child in the car

first aid not immediately rendered

complying with police request  for

license and registration when shot

by police for moving while carrying

a declared and legally permitted weapon?

This story doesn't make sense.  I don't

 want it to be true of this incident in a place

I know and have been let alone other places

I don't know for other people innocent

of any capital  crimes.

How many times have people

gotten away with murder hiding

behind this traditional narrative

we have accepted, all important

facts warped to fit its shape, slicing

off the overhanging edges of truth

with the  careless knife of power?

How terrifying this is, this proof

that even if you do everything right -

young, employed steadily, out with 

your family getting ready to celebrate

your birthday - if you are a black man, 

this is how that day in your life can end:  

you dead because someone 

felt threatened because you 

were doing what they 

told you to do, what you 

were supposed

to do, so what

are we supposed

to do now?