Poem of the Week: Kelli Stevens Kane

bitter crop 

blueberry blackberry as always

bleeding, back road or boulevard,

our boy crowned with baton,

breathing, barely, if you

believe the breeze is just 

air blowing through branches

above the fruited plain

have a seat. when our baby left

we believed he'd come back

in his body. we believed

youngberries grew

into elderberries. but now,

when the wind blows

against your necks, know it's him,

you feel him now that he's up

above the fruited plain

don't you? I hate pavement, I hate summer,

I hate yellow tape, I hate chokeberry,

pokeberry, the way it'll always be too late

to comfort him. the way I'll never dare to say

I hate you back

to our strange America that only protects the few

above the fruited plain

              -for Michael Brown and  

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Used with permission.
Kane reads her poem in solidarity with BlackPoetsSpeakOut. 

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Kelli Stevens Kane is a poet, playwright, and oral historian based in Pittsburgh, PA. She's a Cave Canem Fellow, an August Wilson Center Fellow, and a Flight School Fellow, and has twice received Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grants from The Pittsburgh Foundation. She's studied at VONA, Hurston/Wright, and Callaloo. She reads her poetry and oral history, and performs her one woman show, BIG GEORGE, nationally. For more information, please visit       www.kellistevenskane.com and kskpoet.wordpress.com.

"bitter crop" is the first Poem of the Week from our virtual open mic, to appear on this blog, for Poems that Resist Police Brutality and Demand Racial Justice. All poems submitted for the virtual open mic will published on this blog, some will be chosen as Poem of the Week. 

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If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.