SURVEILLANCE: Professional Wrestling Holds

“We didn’t know anything about a chokehold or hands to the neck until the video came out,” said a former senior police official with direct knowledge of the investigation… “We found out when everyone else did.” – New York Times (June 13, 2015)
 
An Arm-hook Sleeper   an Anaconda
Vise or an Arm Triangle Choke
A Bay Street swing and a Black
out or a Corner Foot Choke
Maybe a Danny Dance
Double Choke   Dragon sleeper
Figure-Four Necklock   We saw
a Garner mount and immediately knew
that move
The Gogoplata sounds ancient like a Guillotine
Choke
Half Nelson Choke or a Hangman’s Choke
and Koji Clutch or Leg Choke
Call it a Last Loosie   a New York noose (a Nigger
noose) and a Pantaleo Press
A Pentagram Choke or a Rear Naked Choke
or a Single Arm Choke and a Sleeper
hold
The Staten Island Squeeze
and the Straight Jacket or a Three-quarter Nelson
A Thumb Choke Hold   a Tongan Death Grip
for assorted Blacks or a Triangle Choke
or a Two-handed Chokelift and
an arena of bystanders
(Previously published in Prairie Schooner, Vol. 89, No. 4. Winter 2015)
***
For 10 weeks, we will feature one poem per week from Surveillance, the new chapbook forthcoming from Writ Large Press. These poems by Ashaki M. Jackson explore police killings of Blacks captured on video and the public’s consumption of these videos. Previous poems: 1

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