For all those on Death Row whose names I don’t know

No moralizing from me
Even though the idea of strapped down suffocation with pigs in uniform watching over morally makes my stomach sick.
No moralizing cause I’ve got my own list.
Of people I think this world would be better off without.
See, I’m not against death for moral reasons
But I believe this nation has no moral high ground and certainly isn’t god.
A nation responsible for the genocide of indigenous people, the middle passage, Jim Crow, Vietnam, and dead Iraqi children has no moral high ground to make judgment on who lives, and who dies.
But I believe in retribution slaves killing overseers raped women getting revenge on rapists.
But those who push institutionalized death are not the raped, are not the slaves.
They’re merely perpetuating history.
See, lynching goes back a long way yall.
I mean, look who we murder
Look who is lined up in rows.
Those assigned bad public defenders,
Those whose political views make us uncomfortable.
And more importantly,
Those our country feels safe killing.
I wonder if Bush can even sleep at night knowing his state murdered Shaka Sankofa on the eyewitness testimony of someone across a dark parking lot who later tried to take it back.
But white victim + black suspect = forgone conclusion
Blind justice is an illusion
Because if justice was blind, death row wouldn’t be filled with black faces next to dirt poor white faces.
If justice was blind we’d have,
Henry Kissinger after being convicted of killing Cambodian farmers, next to Henry Clay Frick responsible for dead workers in Homestead, next to J. Edgar Hoover responsible for the deaths of Lil’ Bobby Hutton at 16 Fred Hampton at 21 and more Panthers after them, next to Ronald Reagan for funding the Contras killing of campesinos in Nicaragua.

Justice isn’t blind.
Justice isn’t even here.
She got chased outta town by politicians on re-election campaigns and Attorney Generals with only recently removed Klan hoods.

So you see,
There is no morality from me.
It’s not needed in this argument because this is just history,
Of the rich sowing the seeds of violence and killing the poor for being good students.
Don’t drop bombs and turn around saying, “murder is wrong.”
We see through you.
Boys in blue.
Don’t murder a 12 year old black kid in Uniontown and be shocked and viciously outraged enough to pack a court room when the murder comes back around.
A gun toten man with a badge is just a thug with a license to kill.
Still,
We talk about youth violence,
Urban predators, three strikes your out, being tough on crime,
And using murder as a deterrent.
The most premeditated murder I’ve ever heard of, is planning it out with judges prosecutors wardens guards,
Telling everyone you’re going to do it on a certain day.
Then going through with it.

But you won’t get them all.
You got the Haymarket 5 but you won’t get Mumia.
You got Sacco and Vincetti but you won’t get the innocents from Illinois just freed.
We will win this we will find justice
We are forming juries we are taking notes
And someday,
bars will be bent back.
Justice will remove her blindfold and stare straight at you.
You rich mutherfuckers and ask you,
“how do you plead?”

- Jeremy Shenk was a member of the 2003 Steel City Slam Team. Catch him on the third Tuesday of every month at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty, along with other amazing poets, for the monthly slam.