RIOT (for Baltimore)

when a trash can
shatters a car window
in my neighborhood
when a brick
finds a new home in a
closed grocery store
when street signs
are exhumed like bodies
and used like battle axes
and used to bang the ground
to gong out to God
it hurts me
it hurts me more
that you don’t
understand

let me ask you
did you not break
your own toys
during the times
you couldn’t cry away
the anger?