Once Upon A Time In Philadelphia
by Tia Ja’Nae
Steel melts at 2500°F. Pigs made sure it’s hotter than that so our dark, meaty flesh roasts to a crisp at the police barbeque. Feels like I’m melting. Can’t barely breathe.
Guess that was the end result they were counting on.
Bastards cut the lights, then the water. Procedure, they call it. One of their flunkies hit the soapbox, and the blowhard gave us enough minutes to do a head count and make a break for the exit.
Nowhere to run or hide. Blue uniforms surrounded the crib far as the eye could see when we peeked through the blinds. The explosion came from the roof like an earthquake. High birds were dropping bombs on the roof. Everything was quick. Tear gas. Black smoke. Cries of death from one side; cheers of death from the other.
Danger inspires you to haul ass. Pigs anticipated that move. Bullet clipped me in the shoulder escaping. Forced to take cover back in the burning house. That’s when I knew we weren’t going to make it. Bullet or blaze, the Pigs got us jammed up either way.
Ain’t nothing worse than hearing flames eat through 100 years of steel and wood before it finds you. So much for electing a black mayor. Wilson Goode ain’t got enough tear jerk tokenism to call his own folks off. They just ignore him, and do exactly what they doing.
No tears. Revolutionaries take their stripe. Those serve and protect terrorists outside will take victory in two destroyed cribs, stomping a newborn to death, and wrongful incarceration of the resistors of the struggle. Burning an entire black neighbourhood was just tying up their loose ends. Departmental procedure I’m sure.
May 13, 1985. 11 murdered. 250 homeless. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania better not ever forget liberty was paid in our blood.
Tia Ja’nae is a creative writer and master propagandist. A proud Trekkie, her writing engages, boldly going where few have gone before and has been featured on Shotgun Honey, 365 Worlds, and Tough Magazine. Her more serious, satirical journalist work has been featured on Humor Outcasts; check out her satire under her pseudonym on www.articulatemadness.com, which could be classified by order of your government.
Image provided by private source.