For Elijah McClain (1996-2019). Killed by police in Aurora, Colo., he was known as a gentle soul who played his violin to soothe anxious animals in shelters.
If only a violin could redeem
the world.
Your skin, glowing like the violin’s wood,
might still sing its humble lament.
Your fingers,
the supple dancers they were,
could skim across the violin’s
neck, could light each trembling
string. Your gentle
neck could guard the violin’s
shivering body, cradling its curves,
a lover.
If only we might be transformed,
to delight
in smallness, might cherish
a boy, a man, as whole as you.
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