Night View

bright in black the blue flashers surround a building
where cop lights frame another shooting at a downtown bar

the news will say violence so like violence has always been
but with more cameras

as I watch from safety of my mountain
I think I know these men:

the vicious with powder burns on his fingers &
the victim face-shot dumbstruck dying on his back on a dirty floor

ten thousand years of their DNA I keep inside me
did I mention the clear night? that I might see forever looking up?

down has its urgency like a hand held out to shake
I observe until the thin-stretched bones of this city break