Blueline and Red Thread: Under the Skin, III

sirens
pierce this sultry night ...
a black kid
in the long shadow
of a white cop

behind my back
they whisper slanted eyes ...
in a dream
I unzip my skin,
put on another

Highly Commended, 5th Kokako Tanka Competition, 2014:

(Commentary by the judge, Owen Bullock: In "behind my back," the effect of verbal abuse is communicated in striking fashion, through a dream, which somehow connects us all. -- excerpted from Kokako, 22, 2015)

Note:  "Under the Skin" is the second themed section of  Blueline and Red Thread, the first collection of sociopolitical tanka."  And you can read the preceding tanka here.