Condemned
Mosquito heat envelopes everyone
In Titusville and then come clouds pumped out
From funnels on the trucks, poison to stun
The stings before they reach with pointed snout
Their victims. White men and the black ones search
Out dark brown women. Holes absorb the shock
Of men. Above the women, men’s hips lurch
And shudder. Underneath the bedroom clock
The women watch the time, resentful, bored.
The closest thing to certainty is sin
Except the Seventh-day Adventists, gored
By proof-text propaganda, din, din, din.
Dejection in bulged shoulders in the jail
Shows Clayvis waiting, lacking hope for bail.
~ Phillip Whidden