As I Live and Breathe

AS I LIVE AND BREATHE by Mary Grace Dembeck As I live and breathe! I turn on my TV, and I cannot Believe what I watch: A white police officer with his knee Pressed on a black man's neck. While the black man cries a plea. And what's the black man's plea? Simply: “I can't breathe!” While, on his neck The officer will not, cannot Remove his knee It gets so hard to watch! And yet, I do watch, Listen to the plea As the officer's knee Makes the black man so hard to breathe. And he cannot Move his tortured neck. His poor, poor tortured neck. Meanwhile 3 other cops just watch - (How come they cannot, Respond humanely to the black man's plea Of “I can't breathe!” While seeing the effects of that horrid knee?) The cop, pressing his knee Harder on the black man's neck, Hears “I can't breathe!” Cares not - continues to sullenly watch, Shrugs off the gasping plea - He doesn't care. I cannot. Bear it anymore, yet I cannot Take my eyes off that knee, Close my ears to that plea Watch that poor black man's neck Collapse, and then I watch The black man no longer breathe. I turn off my TV, so that I cannot any longer see the black man's neck Under the cop's knee, can no longer watch - Nor hear the plea of “I can't breathe!”