30/30: Golden Shovel poem #22

source: Video Shows Chaotic Scene Before Deadly Police Shooting in Columbus

 

We didn’t want to watch the video.

We would have preferred musical shows.

We were unnerved by chaotic

incidents that meant every scene

shifted perspective depending on who stood before

and who shot after. There were too many deadly

blooms to review, no clear evidence that police

understood what we celebrated, while no shooting

or shouting could save us from whispers in

our search for safety before the arrival of Columbus. 

 

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Here is how I am using Terrance Hayes’s Golden Shovel poem format, as proposed by the Sunday New York Times "At Home" section, for 30 Poems in 30 Days during National Poetry Month.

 

Take a newspaper headline that attracts you.

Use each word in the line as the end word for each line in your poem.

Keep the end words in order.

Describe the story that the headline is for.

The poem does not have to be about the same subject as the headline that creates the end words.