9 Minutes
—For George Floyd
By Timothy David Rey
This poem begins with 9 minutes of silence
This poem begins like this
If I could only ______________________
and _____________________
then I’d_____________________
If we as a nation had ___________ or _________________
Then maybe we would_____________________
Hand in pocket and knee on_________________
Hand in pocket and we are____________________
This poem begins with 8 minutes of silence
This poem begins again.
Hands behind back locked in___________________
Head pushed down into______________________
7 is for teargassed protestors
6 is________________________________
and_________________________
This poem continues with 5 minutes of___________________
The poem continues like this
If only I could heave and_________________ again
Under the pressure of__________________________
4 is for knees on sports sidelines
For _____________-ing them
4 is also for_________________
If only we had______________
And then we might have______________
This poem goes on with 3 minutes of silence
The poem goes on like this
2 is for calling out ‘Mother’
2 is also for ____________________
This poem ends with one minute of silence
This poem ends like ________________________________________________.