By: Cedric McClester

This is a different era
And a different time
George Floyd and Aumaud Arbery
Are the new paradigm
What happened to both of them
Was clearly a crime
And now their killers
Will have to do the time

This is a different era
And a different time
A mother looked towards heaven
And received a sign
Once in a while
Justice can be blnd
And different races
Of the human kind

This is a different era
And a different time
Despite the opposition’s efforts
To vilify and malign
Aumaud Arbery
The Jurors were disinclined
To measure him
As he was so poorly defined

This is a different era
And a different time
Where occasionally reason
Gives us the rhyme
So that those who are guilty
Of committing a crime
Will not get away
With crossing that line















Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.

By: Cedric McClester

What kind of evil
Lurks within the hearts of men
Who run down innocent people
Now and then?
They do it with abandon
‘Cos they can
And for the sake of political arguments
They can’t win

What kind of courage
Does it take
To gun down an unarmed jogger
For heaven’s sake
During a citizen’s arrest?
Give me a break!
We’re not sleeping anymore
We’re wide awake!

What kind of despot
Gives an order
Because he felt that
He had oughta
That leads a journalist
To his slaughter?
Who thought he was in
A safe quarter

What kind of kid
Looking for fun
Decides to *******
A long gun
Then travels twenty
Miles away
kills two  and wounds one
Like it’s okay?





















Cedrc McClester,,Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.

Words by: Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.

There is such a thing
As white privilege
And to the manner born
A seventeen year old white boy
Who killed two men  
Now is a paragon
For all that ails our divided country
And frankly put is wrong

Wingnuts will parade him
As  a profile in courage
Others will lambaste him
With words that disparage
The justice system that let him go
Was simply a miscarrage
Cos he’s presented as a hero instead
Of the murderer of the two men dead

How did he get away with it
Some are bound to ask?
No doubt others will celebrate
By raising their flask
Though it’s a travesty
To say the very least
What he’s become if you ask me
Is a savage beast

What have we become
I’d just like to know?
Cos we will have to reap
The sordid seeds we sow
The American experiment
Has quite a ways to go
I hope that she makes it
Even though I don’t know









Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.

By: Cedric McClester

Though hearts are broken
The  jury has spoken
But they had to be joking
Cos now we all are woken
Our justice system is flawed
Though it once was awed
It’s now thought of as fraud
Not worthy of an applaud

So as not to be unkind
I thought justice was blind
But that was only in my mind
Cos it is not as you shall find
And it needs to be stated
It can be complicated
Or perhaps it’s overrated
It’s not always checkmated

Despite instructions sent
It can be skewed or bent
By the human element
Influenced by the eloquent
Closing arguments
Which can shade the intents
Of all kinds of defendants
Who’ve been freed therefore and hence

There’s a big dichotomy
Between how it’s supposed to be
And the things we actually see
In the courtroom which is key
To the thesis herein rendered
About the apprehended
Because of verdicts that engendered
Outcomes that haven’t been splendored

















Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.

By: Cedric McClester

Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted
On all of the charges
While the question of his guilt
Or innocence enlarges
Acquittal shouldn’t be confused
With innocence
Sometimes the guilty are exonerated
At the victim’s expense

Some people are hailing him
As a hero
Others view him as an absolute
Zero
But regardless of which side
You find yourself on
Two human beings are
Dead and gone

There are those who want him to become
A congressional page
Despite all of the blood on his hands and
His tender age
They want to raise him up
As some kind of paragon
While fair minded people
Know that  he’s wrong

Kyle Rittenhouse is a sign of
The times
Where we’ve lost our reasons
As well as our rhymes
Two people are dead that
Didn’t have to be
And he is the perpetrator
Which Is no mystery









Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.

By: Cedric McClester

Kyle Rittenhouse would have been dead,
Or so his mother said
If he hadn’t brought his gun full of lead
But shouldn’t he have been in bed
Instead?
In a clear moment of deflection
She said, “ He brung that gun
For his own protection.”

But that seventeen year old boy
Left his home in Illinois
With a lethal toy
For Kenosha to deploy
For his own satisfaction
He wanted in on the action
And didn’t pause for a fraction
Before his deadly reaction

She went on to say, “Kyle did a good job.
When he broke down on the stand today
I broke down too
As only a mother can do
Cause he’s innocent of the charges
When his gun dislodges
It made perfect sense
To say he killed in self-defense

His mother must have been drinking
Cos that’s convoluted thinking
Kyle killed without blinking
So her argument is sinking
Knowing danger was brewing
What the hell was she doing
Idly watching her son pursuing
What could lead to his ruin?










Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2921.  All rights reserved.

By: Cedric McClester

The fact that gerrymandering
Is fear driven
For those in the know
Is a given
But it’s based on the country
In which we’re now living
In time we hope
That some equity is replevin

The loyal opposition
Ain’t so loyal anymore
They’ve sidestepped the Constitution
To which we all swore
That protects our democracy
Which they choose to ignore
For the other options
That they want to explore

***** tricks and politics  
Are synonymous
When it’s not God
In which you trust
Time worn beliefs
Can be turned to dust
And the things that we value
Can suddenly go bust

Today’s elections are
A zero sum game
When most candidates run
For the power and fame
Which has the picture
Totally out of its frame
And we have only ourselves
To blame











Cedric McClester, Copyright © 2021.  All rights reserved.