The Usual Suspects by Askia M. Toure'

A poetic response to the recent and ongoing violence against our young people and all of humanity. At least we can still believe in the corrective power of poetry. —Joanne Gabbin

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Midnight: werewolves howl in killer
Bat-mobiles, whose sirens are blue graffiti
against the Ghetto's inky walls. Maniacs,
Psychopaths, unleashed against a Bantu nation
resonant with blues. Who walks these
mean streets beside innocent youths absent
of Rites-of-Passage, and Ancestral blessings?
Raging with Hip Hop anger, slender frames in
baggy pants, whose fades and dreadlocks shine like
bulls-eyes in the hellish American Nightmare.

                                               -by Askia M. Touré