–Ron L. Dowell
The powder-white ghost bike
hangs from festooned chain link
as a silent witness
to another murder-by-cop.
Metallic balloons dance
to be freed from strings
of coercion.
Trumpets riot from a boombox.
Sidewalk candles and myrrh
burn, gilded liquor bottles
spill his name:
D-I-J-O-N
A T-shirt keeps his photo
while withered flower sprays
grace the fence
like a rainbow goddess.
Under a tent,
the red, black, and green
liberation flag flaps
a defiant cry, resistant
to winds of terror.
RON L. DOWELL wrote Watts UpRise, a poetry collection released by World Stage Press in 2022. A very public love letter to Watts, Los Angeles, the collection honors its most notable artistic landmark, the Watts Towers, and its creator, Sabato Rodia. Watts UpRise was a finalist for the 2022 Press 53 Award for Poetry, and a featured poem, “Compton, An Energy-Fueled Dark Star,” was nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize. Ron’s poetry resides in Penumbra, Writers Resist, Oyster Rivers Pages, North Dakota Quarterly, The Wax Paper, Kallisto Gaia Press, The Penmen Review, Packingtown Review-Journal, and The Poeming Pigeon.