By Alexis Rhodes
the man has a standing date on Silas Creek Parkway
daily, 4:30 to 5.
a
standing
date
holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign.
i pass him on an errand run, or
carpool duty. he rarely misses a day.
i’ve lived in Winston-Salem for 486 days.
he is retirement age, but fit. tanned.
hippie-hair, long and grey.
always smiling, always alone.
he has stood in rain and heat
as chicken breasts climbed from three dollars a pound
to six.
as pregnancies devolved from Facebook-announcement gender balloons
to corpse incubation chambers.
as children in Gaza and of U.S. barrios faded from happy
to orphaned.
this Ben and Jerry’s statue holding his
“Black Lives Matter” sign like a talisman
clings to simpler times, when
Black lives
were the ones most at risk.
and now that streets fill with tear gas and the military is
deployed to L.A.
he needs to make his sign
larger.
i’d stand with him tomorrow if i thought
his 486-plus days of protest
had done anything that
mattered.
i still might.
Alexis Rhodes (she/her) is a queer, polyamorous poet, playwright, and performer based in North Carolina, in the U.S. She has been published in Action, Spectacle, The Wayfarer, Blood+Honey, and more. She has completed five poetry manuscripts, including her latest collection, “lex, your poetry’s grotesque.” Alexis lives with her husband, two kids, and a hedgehog named Hedge. Instagram: @alexis_writes_things