Seven Senryu for Emmett Till
1955a
Mother sends son south
for learning from the old folks
…
Safe with grandparents.
1955b
The boy fourteen flirts?
Did he forget he was a
…
Nigger in Dixie?
1955c
Did Emmett whistle?
Who dared question her claim?
…
How did the boy die?
1955d
Two cut out his eyes.
Two beat and shot and drowned him.
…
Said, “Justice is done.”
1955e
Two White men accused.
Two admitted killing him.
…
Two were acquitted.
1955f
South returns her son
Disfigured beyond belief
…
Mom shows his body.
2017
White men are both dead.
White woman breaks her silence
…
She tells us, “I lied.”
~*~
Scott W. Williams poems appeared in The Sunday Review, Coffeehouse Writings From The Web, Night & Day, Peach Mag, Ground & Sky, The Buffalo News, Juniper Poetry, Le Mot Juste, NAM Newsletter and Scryptic Magazine. Recent chapbooks are I Am Many Am I? and Bonvibre Haiku. He edits the Afro-Futurism anthology of poetry & flash fiction, A Flash of Dark.
Featured image by Alfred Leung
Punch Drunk Press 