richard pryor was right aka accidents no more (17/30)

have you ever
looked up the definition of the word
'accident'?

when you do
see how it becomes
a password for those vaults of vile thoughts
secreted in the folds of ignorance
wearing lady liberty's colors at knockoff prices
binding your disbelief in bureaucratic tape
stifling your rage by rubber stamps and grand juries

it's swished around the mouths
of predatory patrollers who claim to keep peace
who find that their ingrained hate
was the itch in that finger on triggers
equating spilled blood
to careless drops of gallons of milk
but blood stains or their causes never truly vanish

Steve Biko told us from the grave
countless souls who left parts of themselves
on cypress branches they swung from
tell us with empty eyes
black and brown mothers
in their forlorn cries that rip gladness from clear skies
tell us in the names of their sons and daughters

Richard was right
nobody wants to be an 'accident'
but one finds it hard to tell careless children
with the minds of impotent devils
that dictionaries are never scripture
and that one word
shouldn't sweep our lives away like unwanted dust