Eight Minutes and Forty-Six Seconds: a poem in memory of George Floyd

I fold another wash, in from the line
and sniff me kids' clothes for traces of damp.
I breathe in nothing but the May sunshine
and hints of heat from upturned soil and drills.
And here, in comes me favourite rapper,
but something is wrong, his Air Pods are out.
His teenage eyes are wide with fright and rage –
Ma, look, just look. The small screen captures us.
A white cop kneels down in the gutter.
Kneels into the neck of a handcuffed black
man lying face down on the tarmac road.
The arrested man calls out for his Mama
and she exits heaven to say his name,
to comfort her dying, now murdered, son.
The pile of folded laundry topples down.
We barely have the heart to pick it up.

(RIP, Rest in Power, George Floyd)

Rachael Hegarty’s poetry collections are May Day 1974, poems commemorating the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings (Salmon), and Flight Paths Over Finglas (Salmon), her debut.