BIO
Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet based in Denver, Colorado, USA. They are a Canto Mundo poetry fellow and a The Watering Hole fellow. They are also a poetry reader for Underblong poetry journal. They have poetry published widely, links of which may be found at phaentompoet.com . Follow them on social media @phaentompoet .
_Executive Discretion_
Policial que não mata não é policial
Police that don’t kill aren’t police
–Jair Bolsonaro (2017), president of Brazil
the execution of pleasure:
the pleasure of execution:
the re: between corpse and cops:
the kneeling knees buckling down
the heavy breathing
the heaving breathy why
the cop’s curved smirk
the cop’s smeared cackle
the cop’s candor:
because
it makes me
feel good
to execute: carry into effect:
to execute: the effect carries
_Thingification_
Colonization = “thingification”
–Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism
any every
-thing is meta
-phor – al
-ready comparison
aches to be made
into something
else, if only for
a moment
(everlasting).
this is called
waiting. new
daily ultimatums
thing me:
this or
that or
leave and
take – I’m
taken for
granted for
this taking
away
_(Non)Indictment_
from English endict, enditen, inditen; c. 1300 "bring formal charges against (someone)”
As in there will be no formal charges
against the murders: police, the laws, the systems, the state
As in there will be no formal
As in there will be no form
from Anglo-French enditer; late 13c. "accuse, indict, find chargeable with a criminal offense"
As in there is no accusation to make here
As in there is no charge / no criminal / no offense here
As in there is no finding justice,
reparation, protection, care here
from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + Latin dictare "to declare, dictate,"
As in systematic denial of war
declarations
As in systematic denial of
dictatorship
As in systematic denial of freedom
to speak
from Vulgar Latin *indictare "to declare, accuse, proclaim in writing,"
As in we can never accuse a cop,
judge, jury, executioner
As in we can never declare freedom
As in we can never proclaim liberty
from Latin frequentative of dicere "to say, speak" (from PIE root *deik- "to show," also "pronounce solemnly")
As in pronouncement without solemnity
As in performing a show with nothing to show
As in nothing to say, speechless
from Latin indicare; "to point out"; classical Latin indictus; "not said, unsaid" (from in- "not")
As in not not said
As in nothing to point out new,
surprising, just
As in the unsaid of the unsaid
from Old French enditier, enditer "to dictate, write, compose; (legally) indict,";
from French endite, indite; 14c. non-legal senses " to write, compose (a poem, etc.); dictate"
As in this poem, written against speechlessness
As in I cannot seem to compose myself,
this poem
As in there should not even be any writing, any composing, any dictating this poem