Admission of Guilt
Their first home was in the bowels of Camden.
I gave them birth. It gave them depth
for wherever their wooden legs would take them.
They would remember the shack
out back with no windows
men and women coming in and out
of its wounded orifices like rodents
foraging for food, sex, drugs.
They would remember the 75 pounds of cocaine
that fell from the sky and landed
on our freshly poured stoop.
It fell like snow, so I told them,
It is snow,
but keep your tongue
in your mouth.
They would remember the woman
running naked in front of my car with rain
shrunken hair and bloody beige breasts.
Then they would remember
yellow buses carrying them a couple towns
over to an immaculate school
where they were not allowed
to color Jesus
or the angels brown.
Shawn R. Jones
River Heron Review (2018)
“Admission of Guilt” was published in River Heron Review’s debut issue. You can read the issue at the following link: https://www.riverheronreview.com/poemsandpoets#/shawn-jones/