A Columbus Police Department car sits outside the police head quarters in downtown Columbus. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Ty Chapman, a fourth-year in pharmaceutical sciences, works as an aquatic facility coordinator at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and has been a member of the Boo Radley Society since 2018.
No More Water
One step forward toward
Justice judiciously rendered
Nary a night had passed before
The ground gained
Was reclaimed
Though not silently surrendered
Sidewalk Rainbow signs
Signaled no more water
Making it harder to weep
For all that we are left to keep
Are the memories of rain
The heart of humanity cries out in the streets
Fanned flames rise as buildings burn
We demand justice and until then no peace
Pressure building behind ears too deep to listen and learn
When calling for help summons the Reaper
A clamor is made, arousing the deepest of sleepers
The Thing to Fear
I had no intentions of dying
And you’re mistaken if you think that I am
Or are trying
I simply wish to walk forward
And talk toward
A solution
This event is scripted and reads easily
My troubles start and end with the part of the play that assumes my life To be measly
When compared to yours
And as I draw near
I receive your anger, self-loathing, and pain
Those feelings we refrain
From acknowledging due to fear
As you find your sapphire eyes held tight in my warm earthy brown
As you turn around
And pump round after round
Into my Body
You’ll find yourself no longer anchored to the earth by misplaced fear
The unknown pressure which once swelled up in your breast
Has left
Taking the form of the hot metal now lodged in my chest
Leaving you bereft…
A life lost and a life that begins again
Who really died in the end?
