[FOR GEORGE FLOYD]

Tonight I watch George Floyd die, a cop atop
with a knee on Floyd’s neck, Floyd’s head
pressed into greying blacktop. Like with
an electrocution or lynching, we watch.
And do the white children point and call
and wonder at what’s right? Just what
are we watching here? Is this how
America has always been
or is this how America finally dies?

Kevin Rabas leads the poetry and playwriting tracks at Emporia State. He has twelve books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Nelson Book Award Winner and Kansas Notable Book, and Sonny Kenner’s Red Guitar. His plays have been produced across Kansas and on both coasts and have been published in Sheridan Edwards Review and The Indus Streams. A book of his plays and poems, Watch Your Head 2, will be published this fall by Kellogg Press. From 2017-2019, Rabas served as the Poet Laureate of Kansas. His films have shown across Kansas and Missouri, including “Strawberry Hill Fight Club,” a selection for the IFC KC film festival, the Kansas International Film Festival, and No Coast Film Festival.