The following poems are by DaraMonifah Cooper, concerning the tragic fatal shooting of 15-year-old Tre’Vante Etienne Friday afternoon at a Savan playground on St. Thomas.
“The sound of gunshots often wake me at night while asleep in my Solberg home overlooking town and on the other side of the hill from the West, but hearing those from Savan Friday in broad daylight while I was already awake immediately reignited concerns, feelings, thoughts, and hopes that I know are much bigger than my immediate ability to help the way I’d like,” Cooper wrote in an email.
In response, she offers these two poems, with the second “more specific to Friday’s tragedy.”
The Constant Scissors that Cut the Night
6 more bullets
in our atmosphere
at the strike of 5 a.m.
wondering did anyone else hear
Each one, like a lash through the night
on the backs of slaves
might one, two or three
lead another to their graves
for every bullet counted
like an automatic mechanism
of an old warehouse that is haunted
genocidal realities
like a slap in your face
waking us up every morning
as if we need to be reminded in this place
that this paradise of ours
is nothing more than their playground
it is the land that was/is bought, sold and cherished
as we sing, swing, climb, fly, fall, run and play around
may the wisdom of the ages capture us
and might acid rains wash away our lack of insight
as we open up our eyes
to the constant scissors that cuts the night
— DaraMonifah Cooper
“Just sick and tired of hearing gunshots this early in the morning. WAKE UP my PEOPLE! WAKE UP!!!,” Cooper wrote.
“Yes, we definitely have a broken village crisis in the Virgin Islands, but we don’t make guns here. ‘If I had a Dollar’ is my offering to our thoughts towards the gun violence in the Virgin Islands community. Shared originally at the Rock Lounge Open Mic event in April 2011, I resurfaced it in order to keep us thinking and working towards actual soulutions through dissecting the real root of the problems,” she continued.
“It was written as a raw, yet creatively indirect, emotional response to gun violence and trauma in the community, along with sibling poem, ‘The Constant Scissors that Cuts the Night,’ the poem uses a devastating ‘if I had a dollar’ metaphor to highlight the tragic losses felt locally and the unasked questions that would point fingers away from simply the gun users, their parents and community, but who brings them in … and who allows it,” said Cooper, explaining the submission below.
If I had a Dollar: The Poem by DaraMonifah
If I had a dollar for every bullet punctured
I’d be filthy rich
with the blood, pain, confusion and hatred of my own.
people
what are we waiting on?
who are we waiting for?
BOOM!
Another youth gone
to the rage of metal and skin and bone colliding
with one swift movement
never erasable
for the fearful:
unlikely untraceable
so run…
run like the wind knows your secret
fly…
fly like the birds camouflage you into the clouds
hide…
hide in the scare of your own daily stare
the suspicion of your greeting response
the thoughtless cycle of your motionless presence
if I had a dollar for every bullet shot
I’d be a gun pusher
I lay in bed eyes wide open
wondering
knowing
fearing
eyes tearing
quietly
sharing my thoughts with the spirits in the air….
Hearing,
‘”Who watches the docks at night?”‘
— DaraMonifah Cooper
