On a Folksy Painting of Kids Throwing Die, Harlem

By Jonathan Andrew Pérez

Tap tap tap foretold the stoop’s cartomancy ahead,

Green worms ravage the expected shrine,

bend moonward & escape between sweltering summer law enforcement sweeps.

Throw die: twitch in heaven, shoot out by spring flecked grass bumps

angelic flecked spirit nets: Catch what youth has gambled, return our allowance,

Paint fury over this was an accident, don’t arrest him, the dark path deserved a mural of sweat.

Not reborn, nor murdered, this vigil tightly wound,

all bets on snake eyes—for candlelight Heroes who never had a chance.

I stood upright in the evening to paint the canvas back.

shortlink: dogb.us/throwing

Jonathan Andrew Pérez, Esq., is a Piltdown Review Featured Poet for April 2019. He has published poetry online and in print in Prelude, The Write Launch, Meniscus Literary Journal, Rigorous Literary Journal, The Florida Review’s Latino/Latinx publication, Panoply Magazine, The Raw Art Review, Junto Magazine, Watermelanin, Cold Mountain Review’s Justice Issue, Yes, Mud Season Review, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, The Westchester Review, Metafore Magazine, and Silver Needle Press. He has poems forthcoming in The River Heron Review, The Tulane Review, Abstract: Contemporary Expressions, The Esthetic Apostle, The Tiny Journal, Pamplemousse, and Swimming with Elephants. He was a finalist for the Still Journal Poetry prize. Jonathan was selected by The Virginia Quarterly Review 2018 for a workshop with Jericho Brown and Cave Canem, respectively. He is a 2019 Pushcart Prize in Poetry Nominee. He has a day job as an Assistant District Attorney as a prosecutor. His popular Instagram-poet handle is hillicon_justice, and he tweets @hilliconjustice.

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