Today is April 20, 2021, the day that Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd. There were three counts and the verdicts were GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY.
Ode to George Floyd
Most animals are born with a throat.
a tube that enables all creatures a means of breathing and digesting.
Each fragile being begins life struggling to take a first breath or cry or gasp.
A murder occurs when a lasso, hands, a foot smashes a throat.
Death results.
Life is in itself encompasses beginnings – so natural.
Death – the end – is not natural.
Causing involuntary death is evil – true sin.
The sin that resulted in George Floyd’s death will never be wiped away.
Yet, justice is necessary to bring about hope despite such a loss.
Hope and the sharing of hope to protect the fragility of all throats,
I often feel like a balloon ready to fly off this big blue marble! I openly write about depression and post traumatic stress. Born & raised in NYC from a Costa Rican/Nicaraguan family. I have ongoing medical condition that has caused me to experience 50+ bone fractures. I stopped counting at 50. It's called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. I attended a school for the disabled prior to mainstreaming. I moved to Boston in 1983 for college and soon after became involved in local union and community politics as well as a peace activist. My high points have been my marriage, my step-motherhood and re-connecting with my Papa as an adult. Since 2004, I have experienced much grief due to the deaths of my stepsons and parents. I am a witness and survivor of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. I write prose and poetry in both English and Spanish. I live with my dog Sugar in Roslindale, MA.