Public Evil Poem by Dennis Ryan

May 8,2020

'It's not what happened but how it is told.'
- Philip K. Dick, American writer

'It wasn't until three months later amidst public outcry that the police in Brunswick, Georgia finally arrested the two men responsible for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, one of them, Gregory McMichael a former police officer and investigator.'
- a May 8,2020 radio news report

Evil exists in public places, public faces.
It wears a suitcoat, tie, robes, a uniform.
It commits violence in public, and gets away with it.
It commits violence in secret, and gets away with it.
It breeds well amongst the rich and powerful.
It governs, corrupts, lies, falsifies,
polices, covers up, judges, goes to war.
It terrorizes, traumatizes, victimizes, and attacks
the credibility of victims if anyone listens to them.
It never forgets, but hopes everyone else will.
Ask Ahmaud Arbery and his family.
Ask Martin Luther King Jr. and Amelia Boynton.
Ask Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi and his wife.
Ask John Fitzgerald Kennedy and John Jr.
Ask Ray F. Gricar, his corpse, if you can find it.
Always underfoot, you needn't look hard for it.
It lives as nearby as your local police department.