The police love body cameras. I’m shocked cops
don’t get Oscars (America loves to watch cops),
Best Choke Hold. Best Misdirection. Best Home
Invasion. You think a camera ever stopped cops?
You never seen James Bond? Guns make the best
body cameras. When tv news need headshots, cops
flock like paparazzi. Hell, you could get shot shaking
hands with the mayor. They frame you for squat, cops.
In America, every camera is a body camera if it fits
in the palm of a hand, a pocket. & you thought cops
were the ones with a monopoly of eyes. Horse shit.
A ziggurat makes room only for jealous gods. Cops
ain’t shit. Sure. We used to call them overseers, but
the ones with whips ain’t the ones own crops. Cops
just make for sturdy scalpels in this emergency room
we call home. It’s the unflinching hand taught cops.
________
Alyx McCoy (they/them) is a Worcester-based poet, teaching artist, and bruja. They were a finalist for the 2019 Write Bloody Publishing contest, as well as a finalist for the 2018 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest.
