Killing

from Mbera, Canopic Publishing (2024)

Chauvin kills the way my grandfather did, by choking 
the last, stifled breath in a goat’s throat with his knee, 
before cutting its neck with a knife,
in the evening on a sultry day in May, before dinner,
its bleats of I-can’t-breathe! caught in the gullet of its throat.
My grandfather’s knee was deaf to pleas—there was food 
to put on the table. 
                               The legs were first... then the whole body 
fidgeting, its appeals enough to remind one of somebody 
squirming on the side of a road. On my way home after work 
I saw a guy die, and the asphalt said it’d happen again
and again, and again, and again, and again, and again,
in Amerika where the police have jobs in slaughterhouses.

Rethabile Masilo
    

Share this poem

Have a question? Please take a moment to read the guidelines first.
To subscribe, enter your email in the subscription form (menu icon, top right ⇗), or follow this link.
If you enjoy this blog, I'd appreciate anything on my wish list, or you could purchase my latest book, Mbera.
This blog uses Follow.it for email subscriptions and updates.
By subscribing, you may be sharing data with this service.
See our Privacy Policy for details.