Bullets into Bells

By Liane Ellison Norman

stops a black man,
        his girlfriend,
                their child,
though it's not clear
       why they've
              been stopped.
The black man explains—
       carefully,
               politely,
that he has a gun,
        slowly brings it from where
               it's kept.
The white cop fills
      the black man full
              of bullets,
which is where—
       increasingly—
             white cops
seem to think
       bullets
             belong.

About the Author

Liane Ellison Norman’s new book of poetry, Way Station, was issued by Finishing Line Press in early 2017. Finishing Line Press also published her Driving Near the Old Federal Arsenal. She has published poems in the North American Review, Kestrel, The Fourth River, 5 AM, Grasslimb, Rune, Hot Metal Press and in the Voices From the Attic and Come Together: Imagine Peace anthologies.