The Future of Music
- The Future of Music
I was just going home. I have no gun. I don't even kill flies.
elijah mcclain
________
a siren lights the skyits howl, a chantflaming darkness
on the street, besidea police car, a needlemakes an injection
the spirit of a violinistin orange sneakers, bellowstruth falls from his facelike broken teeth
the world stops its breath
________
the mother praysfor angel wingsand naked feetto lift his weight [End Page 121]
baby, she sangwhen he was bornpraying over his limbsand stalk, his certainty
elijah singing, elijahplaying, praisingdancing, elijahhis cup filled to the brim
a son who serenadescats in their cageshis bow, reverberating string
the mother singsbaby, you are a souland this, isaspiritual revolution
________
I know a psalm when I hear one
when you murder the future of musicyou are conjuring extinction
revenge made of rosesand umbilical cords
________
children of the police officersat home in their beds, sleepingtomorrow would be their summer [End Page 122]
the man who washes patrol carswill scrub the declarationsof a 23-year-old from the bumperwith a thick yellow spongefrothing soapy water
________
parents hide their childrenlike acorns in their cheeksto keep them safe for winter
we march, to a publicrecitation of namesnot just the panopticonof lives but its thievery
the world goesto demonstrationswearing masks
the masks, foldedand thin, accumulatecellular matter
the virus says not a wordthe virus speechless, like the mothers'antennae tuned to murder
________
I envy the dead,not because I want to gobut because their witnessingis different [End Page 123]
who can be witnessto these timesand not want to be thunder—
thunder, skipping offinto the distancecautiously shaking
venus, pluto
mars [End Page 124]
Amy Shimshon-Santo is the author of the collection Even the Milky Way Is Undocumented (Unsolicited, 2020) and Endless Bowls of Sky (Placeholder P, 2020). She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in creative nonfiction (2017), nominated for Best of the Net in poetry (2018), and recognized on the national Honor Roll for Service Learning. Find her work published by Entropy, Yes Poetry, ArtPlace America, Zócalo Public Square, Capsule Stories, Anti-Heroin Chic, Imagining America, and more. She is currently an associate professor of practice at Claremont Graduate University.
