there are words tonight
there are always words:
they just come bloodier—but not
so bloody as six
bullet holes—and gorier
than an everyday opening of veins
and sanitary bleeding on a white page
there are make-believe streets
with real blood
there are not issues of race
there are victims & victors of race
there are words
and there is blood
and the dead still burn for both
and the living, the living, the living…?