caked around the edges
her pale eyes scanning the camera for help or explanation
unanswered
she shifts her search across the watered street, dry-eyed
“hard, but not this hard.”
Two tow-headed children hurl themselves against her
hanging upon her coat like mirrors
until a man with ham-like hands pulls her aside
snarling “She ain't got nothing more to say!”
and that lie hangs in his mouth
like a shred of rotting meat.
III
I inherited Jackson, Mississippi.
For my majority it gave me Emmett Till
his 15 years puffed out like bruises
on plump boy-cheeks
his only Mississippi summer
Lorde is referring to the murder of  Emmett Till . Emmett Till was killed by white men for whistling at a white woman. She is referencing this to imply that her upbringing in Jackson has given her racism as an inheritance. Jackson has given her life violence against her race, and she demonstrates this by referencing a specific instance of this violent racism.
Afterimages