Rant
A Non-Poem for Bettie Lou Beets
Barbara Leon

They executed Bettie Lou in Texas
and I wanted to write about
the beatings her daughters described
how her face turned
all colors of the rainbow
one time she went blind for a week
and they took over the housework
another she near choked to death
beating husbands she buried in graves
below a wishing well.

I wanted to write how she panicked
when they strip searched her
flashed back to rapes
that began when she was five
and how her body spasmed and lurched
when the poison hit her bloodstream, but
the award-winning poet said
poems shouldn't be about anything
they should
just be.

Or I'd write about another trial
about the cops who killed Amadou Diallo
exploded his body with 41 bullets for
standing in the hallway of his house.
How the judge instructed the jury, told them
you can't convict defendants
who act ouf fear for their lives
and how the jury deliberated
how the cops who killed Amadou
because they feared his black face
walked free, I wanted to tell about it.
But poems are supposed to
show not tell
or I'd tell about the report
issued same day as the verdict.
How the government that killed Bettie Lou Beets
and set the cops free
warned other countries
to respect human rights or be sanctioned.

A poem is no place for statistics
or I'd tell about
four thousand Iraqi children dead every month
from sanctions
and how our prisons hit two million last week
highest per capita in the world.

Poetry is for word pictures and images
and how can I match the daughters' description
of Bettie Lou Beets'
technicolor face?

I tried to go back to my
poetic poems
one I'd put aside about food and love
jam-making on autumn evenings
and how good bread smells
when it's rising in the oven, but
they're watching as I write

hungry eyes of the children
hollow eyes of the dead ones
dead eyes of the killers
I want to tell about it
and all I can write
Is a rant.

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