none of the tears
saved him from that
unfair, awful
texas death. not the
jesse jackson tears, or the
al sharpton tears or
the mike farrow tears or
the susan sarandon tears
no tears could save him
and perhaps the black tears
made it worse because this
country sometimes
hates us so and got sadistic pleasure
out of killing him while we wept.
but if america keeps injecting
poison in the
name of justice into the veins of innocent 
black men who land on deathrow
through
stupid lawyers
paid witnesses
mistaken identity
america will fall like rome
only faster, harder
and with the applause of
the world ringing
derisively in
her ears.