Kingdom of Cages

by Matt Sedillo

 

Los Angeles, city of pigs, kingdom of cages

Database, the Fuhrman tapes, the Ayres report

Darryl Gates, Tom Bradley, Lee Baca, Willie Parker

The red lines, red squads, ramparts, Rodney King

The thin blue line on an all-white jury

Murderous metropolis that kills for appearances

Chicano Moratorium, eighty-four Olympics

CRASH, the battering ram

Twin towers, Operation Hammer, Safe city

La Loma, Bishop, Palo Verde, Arcadia

Los Angeles is a city designed to be divided

Postcard paradise, gentleman’s apartheid

Service and protection, 41st and Central

SWAT, Watts, Sleepy Lagoon

Open shop, open season

The killer of children take the shot

They were sworn to protect

As we serve as their moving targets, their bleeding borders

Their open frontiers, the neighborhood threat

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

As they shoot us as we run

Jesse Romero was fourteen years old

When murdered by the LAPD

Los Angeles, city of pigs, kingdom of cages

 

Matt Sedillo is an LA based poet, former national poetry slam champion and the first ever literary director of the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona California.  Along with Irene Monica Sanchez, he is curating a quarterly series, “Narratives of the Southwest” at Beyond Baroque in Venice, beginning Feb. 10 (see calendar listing) in association with the Pacifica Radio Archives’ Mark Torres. These productions will combine the work of poets, writers and academics into events where the audience will both be moved and learn something new.

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