by Nancy Kenney Connolly
They say they’ll pray on it, these mamas,
pray that God will tell them what to do,
the world is changing, this is a new beginning,
they will kill him, black man not supposed to
be sitting in that chair, ain’t anyone can stop it if
God wants it, they will kill him
Same as ever they have done these mamas
pray—for sons they know be safer
in the shadows—for sons they only sabotage
to save: this is not your blue-eyed end of town,
here forsythia survives by ruthless pruning
of its blossoms, O, let us pray
Nancy Kenney Connolly lives in Austin TX, though she will soon move to the Chapel Hill area of NC. Her poetry has been published in such journals as Asheville Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Concho River Review, The Lyric, Sycamore Review, and many others. She has three books, most recently Second Wind, and a chapbook, I Take This World, winner of the Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest.