One Thing We Might Do About It
by James B. Nicola
Let's all take Trayvon as a middle name.
Then there would not be one Trayvon less in
the world, but many more. Let's do the same
with Matthew Shephard's name. Let's champion
the slain. Let's teach the next generation
to choose a name to whom justice has been
denied, then, at the age of twenty-one
or eighteen, take it on, so that the sin
unanswered hear our answer. Take on two,
three, five, as if each were a relative--
they were!—or ancestor or saint. And who
can say they would not have become one? You?
Let someone with the name of Trayvon live.
It's not much, but is one thing we can do.
Then there would not be one Trayvon less in
the world, but many more. Let's do the same
with Matthew Shephard's name. Let's champion
the slain. Let's teach the next generation
to choose a name to whom justice has been
denied, then, at the age of twenty-one
or eighteen, take it on, so that the sin
unanswered hear our answer. Take on two,
three, five, as if each were a relative--
they were!—or ancestor or saint. And who
can say they would not have become one? You?
Let someone with the name of Trayvon live.
It's not much, but is one thing we can do.
About the writer
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James B. Nicola's poems and prose have appeared in the Antioch, Southwest, Green Mountains, and Atlanta Reviews; Rattle; Barrow Street; Tar River; and Poetry East. He has been the featured poet in Westward Quarterly and New Formalist. A Yale graduate, he has earned a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, a People's Choice award (from Storyteller), and six Pushcart nominations—from Shot Glass Journal, Parody, Ovunque Siamo, Lowestoft Chronicle, and twice from Trinacria—for which he feels both stunned and grateful. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His poetry collections are Manhattan Plaza (2014), Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater (2016), Wind in the Cave (2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (2018), and Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (2019).
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