#PHILANDOCASTILE - Kari Gunter-Seymour

[Larry Robinson]

#PHILANDOCASTILE



My granddaughter just turned four,

she holds as many fingers in the air and smiles, 

our ancestral gap between her two front teeth, 

her pearly face blushed.

She loves to sing and stands beside me 

on a chair to help with food prep, 

asks surprisingly complex questions 

I often struggle to explain to her satisfaction.

 
I don’t know what to do with the headlines this morning.

I don’t want fear and hatred to win. 

What words can I give you, Lavish,

that could possibly serve?

 
I can’t get out of my head, 

your four-year-old girl comforting you, 

you in handcuffs, partner dead.

Your courage, the facts, sir, the facts.

I see it. I hear it.

It's in my mouth, my lungs.

I cannot stop hearing her voice.

Four years old.

Four years old.

Four years, old.


	- Kari Gunter-Seymour
 



“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
	- Wendell Berry



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