The Sheriff Joe Playbook

 With bull-head Taurus directedness

into the point of a historic cone,

getting a fix to break us with spurs,

shattering to checkmate in parking lot light,

they said he had a gun as he slept in his car,

and so they blew him away, away, away,

blood-flashing his face into molecules,

the white cop firing nineteen times,

several others, for backup, still more enough,

Dead enough. As a law-enforcement officer,

and, a politician, Joe made a comedy of contempt

& now the old ghosts are sifting, 

lifting, mouths forming, 

documented plans for the next fear state.

Fear of Mexicans. In favor of more baloney.

Fear of transsexuals. In favor of beef.

The mad-red-hatted king in perfect position

for another checkmate, no more angles

will the dude abide, no better angels.

More favor for bootlicking and the raiding

of apartment complexes full of Hispanics,

beaming ray-o-light cleaning power,

Summoning the trains. Fear of ourselves.

Fear of the Others. More favor for camps

and complexes for mass mania transport,

more favor for babies in cages, ignoring

the whisps of smoke signaling apocalypse

in California. Less favor for the human stain.

More favor for a glitter that lasts, shines & shines.

Making America grope again. And now I go

off like the first malcontent at the mutiny,

fortified for any riot, waiting for them

to boil us all in the greasy milk

of their sacrificial goat.

- Douglas McDaniel,

Tolleson, Arizona