Emmett
		- after hearing Nikki Giovanni speak of Rosa Parks and Emmet Till -
	If a boy falls in the woods and no kin is there to hear, did it never happen? What happens to the terror? If a boy bleeds in the woods, do the mocking birds carry his cries to his home? Do the trees weep for him? If a boy dies in the woods and no heart can hear, does even the wind deny? Where does the horror go? Does the battered water of a creek baptize wounds and clense the soul of once a boy? Do all the tears just disappear? If a heart breaks in the woods, will the forest be untouched? Do even the trees keep silence? What happens to a mother's heart? If the box lies open in the parlor, will suffering wail from the tomb and outrage beat its breast? If trees and streets will not cry out, and Justice weeps upon her knees, what elegy redeems my stoney soul?
			Footnote:  I could not fall asleep that night until this poem was written down.