i got on my knees for him

in the darkened ruined stained

stairwell he had a badge on

he said he would take me in

he took my womanhood

away from me

i told ma he

was just a mf

in the same stairway

where that cop got

kilt and they

had to let the young

man (gangster) go

theirs was no evidence

said the lone black man

on the jury who

had been mis-arrested

befo my boyfriend said

a cop kilt that cop

chasing those young boys

pressing their own lives

for some ten dollar rock

got on my knees or him

brenda watched the kids

he had a badge on he would

let me go this old

cop said they got a new

program now experimental

teaching humanities, plato

and stuff to a very

small group of us through it

maybe we learn to read and

find out what the

festering was befo my

boyfriend won’t let me

get on my knees for him

he said it too unnatural

for him make him feel strange

they supposed to destroy

those projects anyway he

said places where they

stacked all the black po

concentrated feeling of

an open wound of long

time ago
 
 

i got on my knees

for him befo they took

history maybe i

pry open a

different kind of womanhood he

took from me sling

a new charm ma i’m

going to learn

evelyn wood dynamics that

my brother taught next

to the gun he

had a badge on

i got on my knees ma