Sidewalk Chalk

              for body cameras

Press an ear
just above his lips
as breath claws.

It’s frantic –
endangered –
on this sidewalk,

a crowd already
breathless watching
breath go extinct.

We’re here
because of fingers:
on throat.

On trigger
and record.
Ask for

the foreman
to repeat the verdict.
Ask for the foreman

to lose a word.
We all want to lose
words. The man

is not alive.
The crowd can
not help.

This is
never going to
change.

I can
not
save.