Castlegate Lane [Panku*]

                1.    Two minutes from
                       Home. Stepping out 
                       The car—precarious.

                2.    Nightsticks and fists
                       Fell yet again.
                       Tonight’s name: Tyree.

                3.    Do these 5
                       Black cops hate
                       Blackness that much?

                4.    “Administrative leave” equals
                       Two White cops
                       Escape from scrutiny.

                5.    Every village has
                       A witch everybody
                       Fears and hates.

                6.    All 7 were
                       Bloodthirsty warlocks, notorious—
                       Memphis and elsewhere—

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[For Tyree Nichols—1993-2023]

*A short poem consisting of 9 words. Devised by Elizabeth Sophia Strauss [“Deadpan Lizzie”].

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Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 7 books—Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black [all from POOR Press], Elohi Unitsi [Conviction 2 Change Publishing], Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate [Vagabond Books], and Plans [Nomadic Press]—and 67 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far. Currently seeking a new publisher to transform his finished manuscript into a finished, printed 8th book.