Video Villanelle
for Eric Garner and George Floyd
He struggled to breathe while they pinned him down.
They said they’d stop, but didn’t.
We watched them kill him first time round.
New York footage complete with sound
should end this scene. It didn’t.
We struggle to breathe while they pin him down.
The playback is viewed in every town:
He suffocates nearly ten minutes.
We watched them kill him first time round.
Again and again this death is rewound.
Every school kid sees it
then struggles to breathe while they pin him down.
How many times must his hands be bound,
the knee on his neck and pressed in it?
Didn’t we watch them kill him first time round?
Our sons must see another one drown.
When will it stop; is there no limit?
We struggle to breathe as they pin him down.
We watch as they kill him this time round.
Lao Rubert lives in Durham, North Carolina. Her poems have appeared – or will appear – in Atlanta Review, Barzakh, Collateral, Mom Egg Review, New Verse News, The Avenue, Wordpeace, Writers’ Resist and elsewhere. Rubert has spent a career working to reform the criminal justice system.
The Marbled Sigh 