Bullet Points

“Bullet Points” is a 33-line poem that has no stanza breaks; each of its lines varies in syllabic length. It’s structured as a lyric, centering on Brown’s observations and feelings; it relies on emotional resonance rather than narrative.

This poem is told from the point of view of the poet, who positions himself as someone in the United States who “may be at risk” (Line 10) of police brutality due to the color of his skin. Brown uses the form of litany, or repetitive statements, to help organize the evidence for this concern as he enumerates the various suspicious ways people of racial or ethnic minority backgrounds have died at the hands of corrupt police officers.

The repetition of the word “myself” at the end of the first three lines (a device called epistrophe) drives home this personal concern. Rhyming couplets add to a sense of urgency and give the poem the feel of a call-and-response sermon. Enjambment, or not using punctuation at the end of lines, also adds to this urgency; end stops occur only five times in Lines 10, 19, 25, 27, and 33, bookmarking key points.