DENISE'S GARDEN

This happend in my town, happens in yours, happens everywhere. The police shoot an unarmed black person. The community plants a garden.

Such a beautiful garden

a community’s pride

Yet the most beautiful petals

of a fragrance sublime

lie dormant awaiting

such rays as may bring light

nurture, cause to bloom

THE TRUTH as light always

allows vision where none

was permitted before.

Here once stood a tenement

A red brick apartment building,

81 Thurston Road.

Here flowed crimson misery

and gave to us the mystery

of Denise Hawkins.

Under this soil, giving life

to its lie of unity ran

a black woman in a basement

ran into a police bullet in the dark

ran out of blood, and died.

“She came charging at us”

“Something glistened in the dark”

“We thought she had a knife”

“We were justified”

So said the officers

 

“No Bill’, the panel said.

The community that raised her

howled, cursed, grieved

and now has planted a garden

Where stood 81 Thurston Road.

The same sad story; it is old

What would Denise say?

We’ll not know; it can’t be told

She is dead; she cannot speak

And now, here lies a garden

to cover a dark basement

whose truth maybe needed

covering up.

Enjoy the beautiful flowers

that have buried this address:

81 Thurston Road.

But know ye that their roots

are blackened in blood.

Remember 81 Thurston Road.

Smell the fragrant flowers but…

Think; question as you pass by

For herein lies a lie

Buried under Denise’s Garden

in this hallowed ground.

Reviews

[Dutch Jr.]

Deep. Certainly something I've seen in my neighborhood. God bless Sean Bell, Rodney King, Emmett Till, and anyone else who has suffered the brutality of racist, prejudice law enforcement. Your poem accurately words the gist of these types of situations. Beautiful, artistic way with words:

"A red brick apartment building,
81 Thurston Road.
Here flowed crimson misery
and gave to us the mystery
of Denise Hawkins"

Great lines. Realy vivid in a poetic sense. This whole poem, in fact, was an eloquent flow, and great portrayal and storytelling. You give a mysterious air to this poem, and a "sheeding light" sense, and I think it can even be perceived as a symbol, or a microcosm of the societal battle between us and the police, because police brutality is not front page news, unless the victim suffers an overly harsh fate. But racial profiling takes place everyday. Great write.

[just rose.]

"And now, here lies a garden
to cover a dark basement
whose truth maybe needed
covering up."

Incredibly chilling lines, in a poem that juxtaposes the fragrance of flowers with the profound loss of a woman. Very sad and very well done.