Court

A basketball court without a net
Is just court.
Trying children
On crimes of being born
Black and/or poor
Hanging upside down
Swinging from jungle gym
(prison) bars

A basketball court without a net
Is just court.
Trying children
On high crimes
Trying children
On misdemeanors
Trying children
Work to please us,
Responsible
somehow
by being
doing time
For being born
Black and/or poor.

Where is the public defender?
Hung man jury live downtown.
Don’t wander too far,
I heard you can get killed for
playing football in the street.
A misunderstanding
Punishable by
Asphyxiation.
Misdemeanors
Misunderstandings
Miss miss missing
Found
Guilty.

Guilty
Until proven
innocent
parking lots
Are not playgrounds
But fenced in corrals
where needles are found
merry go round
Justice system
You’re in
You’re out
only to get
spun
back in
go round and
round and
round again.
Watching the ground pass
Below you
Below you
You be low,
Hanging your head
Close to black top
Spinning
Spinning
Hanging
Hanging.
Glimpse
A shard of grass
Trying to grow up
Through cracks
With the weeds.
Wait till it slows
Down
before you get off.
Please,
Please,
Plea bargain,
Rockefeller gots the
Maximum,
Minimum is you.

A basketball court without nets
Is just court.
No matter how hard hands push the swing
Your feet won’t touch the sky.
No matter how hard hands push the swing
Your feet don’t touch the sky.
No matter how hard hands push the swing
Swing down low,
Your feet won’t touch the sky.


Tracey Luszcz
Copyright 2002