Poetry

Pamela L. Laskin

He Called for Mama

                               In memory, George Floyd

Eight minutes on his chest
he called for Mama

now George Floyd is dead
he called for Mama

in heaven now with God
and also Mama

Black boys still harassed
without their Mamas

children they are bruised
without their Mamas

while others in their graves
with tears of Mamas.

Pamela L. Laskin is a lecturer in the English Department at City College, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate Children’s Writing, and directs the Poetry Outreach Center. Several of her children’s and poetry books have been published. RONIT AND JAMIL, A Palestinian/Israeli ROMEO AND JULIET in verse was published by Harper Collins in 2017, and was named among the35 books to have on your radar for 2017. BEA, a picture book, was a finalist for the Katherine Paterson Prize for Children’s Fiction. She is the winner of the 2018 International Fiction Prize from Leapfrog Press, and WHY NO BHINE, an epistolary novel about the Rohinya Muslims, was published in 2019. The Operating System recently published a bilingual picture book, MONSTER MARIA, which is about Hurricane Maria, and is being used as a fundraiser for after-school programs in Puerto Rico. Linus Press recently published MY SECRET WISH about families seeking asylum, and also being used as a fundraiser.
Follow her: twitter@RonitandJamil and follow her blog: http://PamelaLaskin.blogspot.com/