FOR SMOKES? “We were effecting a lawful arrest, Not a big deal.” replied Lt. Christopher Bannon after Officer Daniel Pantaleo pressed death into Eric Garner’s neck; Staten Island’s quality of life thirsting to be free Of loose cigarettes sold from the pockets of Of a black man standing in front of a corner store On a street, This system’s ill – Eric Garner died for pennies on the ounce, “The perpetrator’s condition did not seem serious and he did not appear to get worse” wrote Kizzy Adoni, African-American, a woman, the NYPD sergeant supervising the arrest. Kizzy, her namesake, knew that appearances are not the way to measure the quality of a life: spit being easy to hide in water. As she watched a body die When did it stop being a perpetrator and become once again a man? Has he? In a community that was his home, The buyers of his loosies walked from their homes to that corner, The coins they exchanged for a cigarette were made change in the beauty supply store before which Eric Garner stood. Beauty sold in a store in front of which a man’s life was deemed to be of an unwanted quality. Ugly and needing to be removed. Like how today to smoke is to be asked to step outside and away. For those who burn cigarettes the act of breathing in is checked By where one is allowed to exhale. Toxicity. Stank. Garbage. A lighted loose cigarette dropped has been known to start a fire, So too has the Black Body started infernos killed by policing. As Zippos give way to iPhone flashlights, And vaping replaces the burning of things, Eric Garner seller of loose cigarettes, Dead by policing in the name tax revenue and anti-loitering laws, Blacked upon the ground Resisting death, and a city’s need to hold him accountable for being entrepreneurial without a license. #ericgarner #blacklivesmatter #poorpeople. #policereform #crimeandpuniahment #blacklikeme #respectlife #peopleoverprofits https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3-Avoh6zY/?igshid=1gj29suvkseqg
