Lethal Weapon...

Image Source: NBC NEWS

© 3 July 2020, the Griot Poet

Violins are dangerous things
Sometimes called fiddles, the action fiddling
An instrument with four strings
Tuned to perfect fifths;
Langston immortalized “flatted fifths”*
Mention in 16th century Italy
Historically impacted folk music, country, bluegrass; jazz

Lethal weapons injecting mystic muse
In the form of tunes that croon
From initial animal gut
To tuned and spun polymer strings
Einstein, Stradivarius made them sing
For meditation and elation,

Elijah McClain,
A self-taught prodigy, massage therapist and vegan,
Jamming to his music quietly
Sipping iced tea, like Trayvon Martin,
Jammed-up with not a knee in his throat
In 2019,
But a carotid chokehold
Banned by Aurora police,
An introvert warning: “please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.”
Apologized for throwing up
When his esophagus decided it had enough,
Involuntary sedative ketamine resulted
In cardiac arrest
In a hospital bed
In custody at 23…

The police fired are those that mocked
His death: the ones that killed him
Still free,
Violinists in stringed protest in peaceful space
Met with
Pepper spray, flash bombs, clubs and mace

Because

Violins are dangerous things
Sometimes called fiddles, the action fiddling
An instrument with four strings
Tuned to perfect fifths;
Langston immortalized “flatted fifths”*

Of “little colored boys with fears,”*
That, in the ensuing years of racist hate
Are still applicable,
“re-bop be-bop mop and stop”*
Expression of 1st Amendment Rights
…in fascist states.

For Elijah McClain, Rest In Power

*” Flatted Fifths” by Langston Hughes

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/151030/flatted-fifths-