Witnessing the Lynching, from the Sky’s Diary

Loretta Diane Walker

March 1, 2021

“Negro Is Slain By Texas Posse: Victim's Heart Removed After His Capture By Armed Men" was published in The New York World Telegram on December 8, 1933.

Account 1: Sky

Curses of the first born,

the archivist of the all-in-all,

the receptacle of every act

and uttered secret.

Born before time itself,

I am predicated to witness

hobbies of cruelty

based on certain men

worshiping the pigmented temple

of their skin.

Longevity is cruel.

I can never unremember

blood dripping through history

from frenzied clubs,

lust filled blades

for the taste of a negro’s plasma

and the long drop

and snap of a black life.

Account 2: Justice

Fashioned with fair hands

to hold sword and scales,

balance morality, I am ignored.

Guilt, innocence tastes the same

on hate’s singed tongue.

Truth is a nuisance,

accusations kindle for fires

to destroy what is different.

I am a blind amputated woman.

Account 3: The Rope

Beneath a jungle of stars,

I cradle an innocent neck.

A venomous mob stings

The darkness with their disdain.

Death knots a century of screams

beneath the moon’s weeping white eye.

Loretta Diane Walker, an award-winning poet, multiple Pushcart Nominee, and Best of the Net Nominee, won the 2016 Phyllis Wheatley Book Award for poetry, for her collection, In This House (Bluelight Press). Loretta is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. Her work has appeared in various literary journals, magazines, and anthologies throughout the United States, Canada, India, Ireland, and the UK. She has published five collections of poetry. Her manuscript Word Ghetto won the 2011 Bluelight Press Book Award. Loretta received a BME from Texas Tech University and earned a MA from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin. She teaches elementary music at Reagan Magnet School, Odessa, Texas.