The Race Riot of 1919
by Timothy Cook

      
    		read the name 
    Eugene William as among a list, 
    
    a very long list, reported only in 
    the Defender, disavowed by 
    
    the Police Department, 
    a human list that began 
    
    to be collective unconsciously 
    compiled many scores ago & 
    
    everyday includes additions, though 
    most victims remain nameless  
    
    		focus on a single grain 
    of sand on 29th Street Beach, 
    
    see all the sand, the dunes 
    & elaborate castles & human 
    
    footprints, imported & dumped 
    onto shoreline carved out of bog 
    
    & swamp 
    		perceive stones 
    
    detonating fresh water, the moment 
    of impact against a human 
    
    body, the stones’ trajectory 
    through Red Summer air &
    
    the hands from which stones 
    are thrown, stoning as Biblical, 
    
    the ripples spreading out 
    across the entire Lake 
    
    & the entire Nation
    
    
Packingtown Review – Vol. 25, Spring 2026

Timothy Cook graduated from Loyola University with a BA in philosophy and from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His work has appeared in Rogue Agent, [PANK], Health and Healing Folio, pioneertown, and San Pedro River Review, and he received a grant from the Mookie Jam Foundation.

  1. Timothy Cook
    The Freedom Movement of 1965-1967poetry