Nine Minutes

540 seconds

Of inhumane breathing

It took

9 minutes

for life to evaporate from Floyd’s lungs

Chauvin’s chauvinistic police tactics

Has paralyzed another black family with tragic

Trauma, dilemna, racial coma

Today, May 25th

All Gianna can do is replay those

9 deadly minutes

In her mind

Hoping time would be so kind

To rewind its hand

To touch the lives of those Minnesota officers

With the love of Christ

So her father can breathe again.

~Berwick Augustin

Berwick Augustin is a published author, poet, and educator. He offers self-paced online courses that teach the basic elements of writing and the structure of opinion, informative, and argumentative essays. He is also the brainchild behind Evoke180 publishing.