Thursday, April 29, 2021

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE MOMENTS AFTER THE DEREK CHAUVIN VERDICT

a found poem
by Dick Westheimer




White folks in my feed: Thank God!
Black folks in my feed... 
White folks responding to white folks in my feed: Amen!
Black folks in my feed... 
White folks in my feed: Boom!
YES, YES, YES!!!!! Justice, sweet Justice!
A perfect trifecta...GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY.
Justice served. Black Lives Matter. Accountability today. 
A black death mattered. 
GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY ❤️❤️❤️

Black folks in my feed:
George Floyd is still gone.
God rest your soul, George Floyd.
Each day that I worry I will be next 
is another day 
without justice.
If there hadn’t been a video, 
there’d never have been a trial.
Time to organize our strength 
into power.
DO NOT forget 
the other three cops! They let it happen!

A white woman in my feed:
What a relief justice was served!

A Black woman in my feed posts a snapshot:
George Floyd holding his daughter Gianna. 

Black women in my feed: 
Thank God for Darnella Frazier. 
Keep ALL the witnesses in your prayers. 
All of them.
I exhaled...and as soon as I did, 
I started sobbing. This is what it’s like 
to be Black in America.
This! Darnella! A Black girl...now a Black Woman. 
I am thankful for you!

White folks in my feed: 
Justice. Guilty x 3!! We can all breathe!!!

Black men in my feed:  I  still  can’t  breathe.


For over 40 years, Dick Westheimer has—in the company of his wife Debbie—lived, gardened and raised five children, on their plot of land in the rural US in Clermont County, Ohio. He recently has taken up with poets and the writing of poetry to make sense of the world. His poems have appeared in Rattle, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Riparian Anthology, and The New Verse News, among others.