for Willie Louis 1937-2013, who testified
against two men who killed Emmett Till,
1955, Money, Mississippi
When you walk past Klans-
men, smiling at you
on your way into the court
house, wondering how
you will ever live here
after this airless day.
When you tell the story
of a pick-up truck,
a barn, a boy, a threat.
When you point at two
men in the courtroom
and everyone gasps at
what they have never seen
before, but know is true.
When your word is a match-
head, hissing into flame,
testifying aloud but blown
out as soon as you speak.
When all the air
in the courtroom shakes
its white head.
When the smiling men brag
about killing the boy
in the barn. When they
joke about a river, about
what cannot float. When
you flee to the mother’s
city, to breathe air that isn’t
a gasp. When you hide
the name your parents gave
you for fear the men from
that barn will come
smiling for you too.
When you speak to your wife
years later, after a lifetime
of breathing beside her.
When this air thick as lead
presses your chest to breaking.
When the match’s flame
consumes all the air, revealing
a coffin, a boy, a mother,
and you, burning still.
Added: Thursday, April 13, 2017 / From "Ache" (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017).
Photo by Ted Schroll.
Joseph Ross is the author of three books of poetry: Ache (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017), Gospel of Dust (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2013) and Meeting Bone Man (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2012). His poems appear in many publications including, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Xavier Review, The Southern Quarterly and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. In 2014-15, he served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. His poem, “If Mamie Till Was the Mother of God” won the 2012 Pratt Library/Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. and writes regularly at his website.
