I am holding my breath not because there is a knee pressed on my neck but because I am waiting for the results. No matter what happens here, it will not fix things. We must keep pushing and changing, calling out and speaking up. I know that I don't know what it is like in reality or metaphor to not be able to breathe and I will use my voice. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Jurors, invoke truth: the smallest of justices.
This was written as part of National Poetry Writing Month 2021, sparked by the Writer’s Digest prompt for April 17 to write a poem about waiting in preparation for the end of the Derek Chauvin trial.