Judge Clemons’ White Mask
she so prettily
and photogenically
looked straight
into the camera
to claim
that she was concerned
about racial healing
only to send the author
of fourteen
curriculum prescribed
books on
the racist disease
back
to death by incarceration
with
a show of empathy
aforethought
she spoke
oh so very eloquently
of a lynching in her family
only
to send Mumia back
to slow burn lynching
on the basis of testimony
bought
with the studied
posture
of a Black Madonna and child
widening
her mascara-shadowed
sorrowful eyes
she expressed her concern
for her sons
in a racist society
only to send
our Native Son
back to death by incarceration
she is careful
to speak -
shall we do another take?—
of peace and reconciliation—
but she selectively forgets
that the late Archbishop Tutu
its original architect
called for the immediate release
of Mumia
whom he went in to meet
the iconography
she chose
for her promotional video
is full
of footage on Black Lives Matter
but she decided
that even if Mumia had proved
his claims
it did not matter
She primly
stressed
that it is always time
to do the right thing
but to Mumia she said:
your claims
are either already litigated
or
time barred
meanwhile
in two-timing mode
she took her own tortuous time
to judge
that our ailing elder Mumia
did not
have time
on his side
© Julia Wright. May 1st, 2023. All Rights Reserved to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s and Wadiya’s children.
Note: Judge Clemons is the Pennsylvania judge who on March 31, 2023, ruled against Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal in a blatant assault on fairness against the frame up of an innocent man who has already served four decades in prison. Each verse in this extraordinary poem refers to a video of the judge recorded for the Philadelphia Catholic archdiocese where she posed as an advocate for racial justice and healing.