STRANGER FRUIT (2023)

STRANGER FRUIT (2023)

By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Compact spaces
Contain a stranger fruit,
Dark bodies crammed together
Like grapes with no roots.
Mass incarceration
Razor wire plantations,
Confining people
Of oppressed nations,
Chicano AmerIndian
New Afrikan Haitian.
A process of
Killing us in reverse,
Preventing reproduction
Even worse.
Than Billie Holliday’s
Strange fruit hanging from
Poplar trees,
Cuz they were isolated deaths
Unlike these,
No putrid smell on the breeze.
But we’re picked off by the
Millions,
These deaths are secret
So don’t incite dangerous feelings.
Instead of public executions
Lit by bon fires,
We’re dispatched by the thousands
Hidden by walls and razor wire.
Which dilutes our sense of danger
Entire crops packaged to die,
Making their demise much stranger
Than twisted mouths and bulging eyes.