In eight minutes, forty six seconds
a life was taken
igniting
the long brewing firestorm
simmering beneath America.
In eight minutes, forty six seconds
a person can walk
half a mile of city streets
to the police skirmish line.
In eight minutes, forty six seconds
a person can read
2,250 words from
Whitehead’s Underground Railroad
Adichie’s Americanah
Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.
Just pick one.

Jennifer Shneiderman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a writer living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Indolent Book’s ‘HIV Here and Now'‘, The Rubbertop Review, the Poetry in the Time of COVID-19, Vol 2, anthology, Variant Literature, Bright Flash Literary Review, Wingless Dreamer and Trouvaille Review. Currently, her husband is on the front lines of the pandemic and her teenage son is in quarantine.