We Have to Put and End to ‘Here We Go Again’ (In Memory of Tyre)

Photo from Tyre Nichols’ Obituary

by Ernie McCray

All that physical torture
that Tyre Nichols went through,
to me,
was way too much
déjà vu,
in the form of
“Here we go again,”
created by roguish so-called “peace officers”
committing sins against Black humanity,
stomping and punching
and tazing and spraying
and kicking
and then watching their victim
as he lay dying,
justifying
their brutality
shucking and jiving
and lying
about Tyre having done some reckless driving
as though driving aggressively
is a capital crime
that requires
no adjudication
or a trial by jury,
and a mother,
with heaviness burdening
her darkened soul,
cries tears of sadness
from the madness
that’s taken
her child away,
a young father,
a warmhearted joyful man
with a tattoo of her on his arm,
who liked to do
fakies
and kickflips
and McTwists
on skateboards
for recreation and fun
and photograph
windswept hills
and green valleys and canyons
in all their beauty
and the brilliant colors of sunrises
and sunsets
that take away our breath
and distract us, in moments,
from life’s stresses.

So, as a society,
we’re left with the obligation
to see that
Tyre’s loving spirit lives on
by continuing
the centuries-long pursuit
to bring the murders of
Black women
and men
by “The Man,”
both policemen
and policewomen,
to an end.

A time when we no longer have to say|
“Here we go again.”