From Canfield Green Apartments,
Tituba, Rekia, and Cynthia
Watch Michael
Fall

Sasha Banks

(after Gail Scott)

 

Street: In apartment wall. Across the street. Hot August.
He/Michael[1] running away. From off’cer {& silver arrow}.
Th’ sound. One/two, three; fffourrrr. Five sixsevennnn
(ate?) I/T/Tituba[2] cursing in wall. Moaning ‘cause I’ve sawn
it before and before again. & crying –AGAIN THIS. OH,
-HE HANDS UP I/T/ME/TITUBA SAWED THEY THERE
ON THE SKY UP. Speaked with some shout and I/Tituba,
just in a walls now nothing no body just gone. No one hears
me because dead means still silent hushed as a blown
candle. Him/he/Michael bloods and bloods on the street for
hour then hour hour & hour. But I saw when he go into the
up and his face looked just still still and boy. I/Tituba want
to tell Him/M –COME STAY THIS WITH ME. WON
TOOTH THREE FOUREVER, MICHAEL. MICHAEL? MICHAEL!

 

Street: In the window. August, now. Michael he walk
walking from this thissswh-te m-n. Michael a silver behind
you MichaelMichaelMMMichael look around you back
behind.
Both sky palms. Both. One pop {had a great fall}.
Cynthia shaking on a wire & Tituba (in) the wall mad as
fire. She hot piss pisssvinegar. Rekia[3] (my nnname ago) in
the window I, –AGAIN THIS? OH, HIS HANDS UP!
Rekia (mine name) watch’d his head catch’d a wh-te m-n’s
silver. Cynthia shooking everything. Michael? You see
Rekia (a name then) look look look the window, Michael!

{so red so red the street on, clock spin spin spin spin I
know four. Times.} Every wh-te m-n a bird flyed from
guilt away? oh me. sour ghost girl husk me Rekia gone in
window. Michael go into some up where. I see I ssssawhim
go. & his face a beam sweet {it comes off I tttthink.
Michael’s face. a new one just on after this now time. and
hair too. teeth? a lights sunlike a stars on waters I tttthink. I
see I ssssaw that. Too}. Say Rekia (mmme) –MICHAEL?
WHERE ARE YOU?

 

Street: Telephone wire. Nine Augusts. BOOM {s i x them}.
Mike runnnnn BOOM he crumbs. {crumbs?} C RRR U
MMM B LLLLL E. He did. Was a man. There was a man
put six ssssilver missile in Mike. & Rekia she –AGAIN
THIS? OH, HIM HANDS UP! Tituba and –I SAW THEM THERE
ON THE SKY UP. Palm there. Palm too over
tttthere. Now. Mike d o w n. Mike. Cynthiiiiiia[4] me. Your
eyes is there over. Mouth a car under. You red-ing the
street long on four. YYYou falling still? Look. Up me. Here,
Mike. See?
He lay. He down done. Dead don’t wwwwalk
but we move. {& no names, no name after here this. some
dead? name only living on a mouth in a teeths a tongue}.
Dead don’t walk. BOOM, like that. Just down just coming
we when a blood calling. A dying kin’s name is our name.
& we answer {to}, it. Come Mike away up. Walls cal’mity.
{calamity?} C O LLLL A PP SSSS E. Uh, b o d y you?

{Smoke?} Dust. You body got fall’d. Went deaded down
dropped you did but. You every skins all come new, now
here up.
Look’d. & Mike. Telephone wire {gasp} he shhhh
by. He go. Go{ne}? Palms for Mike. Hair & a teeth some
shine. I says, –MIKE! CAN YOU HEAR THEM
REMEMBERING?

 


1 Michael Brown, 18—a boy fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in August 2014.

2 Tituba—a Barbadian woman enslaved in Danvers, MA, was the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials of the 17th century.

3 Rekia Boyd, 22—a woman fatally shot by off-duty Chicago police detective Dante Servin in March 2012.

4 Cynthia Wesley, 14—a girl killed in a terror attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church of Birmingham, AL, when the United Klans of America detonated a bomb in September 1963.