I heard about what happened to you
and it was as though
I had swallowed tar
boiling hot thick
I cover my mouth
but I have already tasted
the impossible things they did to you
today you died
while people fill the streets in your country
like water that has been dammed too long
they chant for justice
claw at the sky
and perhaps it will make a difference this time
your face will crawl from the floor of that bus
onto our eyeballs
and we will no longer
pretend we are blind
but the whole time they said
you were fighting for your life
mostly I hoped
you had stopped fighting
as soon as they dug
their darkness into you
that a latch opened
on your soul
a safety-valve made for things
we shouldn’t have to endure
that you floated away
right then
face up to the warm sky
ears coated in a gentle song
the angels reserve
for their own.