Camera phones out, brandished like weaponry
Pepper the streets around the crime
As if the threat of observation were enough
To stop a violent perpetrator in their tracks,
Quell the wave of the power trip from washing
Over the bulletproof vest, pressed uniform, holstered gun;
And as if the promise of accountability could be distilled
Into one solitary square of communication, freedom.

One knows that in a world where the only power we possess
Is to know what we alone saw and heard and did,
So that when the forces of “are you sure?” and “surely not” –
Bickering and backstabbing, secondguessing and gaslighting –
Crash upon you from an attorney’s confident voice, creating doubt
For everything you do not have clear as solid rock:

In the knowledge of that future time,
All one can do is watch.