April 25 NaPoMo 2021

[dukealien]

Heroic Measures


As God’s my witness
I did all I could to save
that guy he was down
breathing like a saxophone
struggling like my own kid
with colic he was so weak
trying to fight me off
I thought I knew how
to give him CPR
and mouth-to-mouth
but I forgot steps
he got still and
I smelled piss and shit
he’d aspirated vomit
but all that cheering crowd saw
was a black man pushing his chest
and holding a white man down
and yelling in his face
when I tried to keep him with us
turns out he was
a police detective
I didn’t know that
all I know is
I killed him doing it wrong
and now
I’m their damn hero.