To Victoria Esperanza Salazar (Victim of Police Brutality)
To her who is all of us.
Your defenseless body
before my eyes.
Eyes loaded with horror
but next to a silent mouth.
I do not stop the knee
of an oppressive regime
which wrenches your breath and your dreams
while sowing orphans
more still.
When I let them kill you
I die a death too.
I am left with few passings to live
and less life to resist.
8 thoughts on "To Victoria Esperanza Salazar (Victim of Police Brutality)"
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A beautiful elegy, I love the second stanza
Thank you for reading, Nicole 🙂
Thank you for the raw and beautiful words…and the education.
“When I let them kill you
I die a death too.”
This realization, put so succinctly, could save us all.
Empathy and the understanding that no one is an island could be of great help towards less violent societies.
Thank you so much for reading what I have to say, Donna.
Thank you. Thank you so much for writing this. Not just because it’s a poem that hits us with tragic reality and the horrors of this world, but also because I had not heard of Victoria until now. Seeing the article I was reading was from 2021 was another thought-provoking smack.
Thank you, Philip, for taking the time to know Victoria’s story and unfair death.
And thank you for reading 🙂
Powerful. Agree with Donna’s comment. A lesson for all.
Thank you for reading, Pam 🙂