Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome back poet and writer Kiyoshi Hirawa, who debuted in “Vulnerable,” with “The Price of Camouflage,” a pointed piece of flash fiction dealing with corruption in law enforcement. Dr. Hatahali, a rural coroner, is shocked when the local state police colonel asks her to temporarily change the coding on a woman’s unidentified body, falsifying and obfuscating her identity.
“He took off his trooper hat. “Okay, cards on the table. The governor’s going to announce his pick to replace our recently deceased lieutenant governor. It’s gonna be me…unless the media overruns this place looking for a story.””
We come to understand that some lives matter more to the media, to the law, and to society while others are all but invisible. Kiyoshi writes from experience with endemic injustice in police departments and creates an utterly believable and frustrating portrait of “business as usual,” which unveils itself slowly and with calculated self-assurance. Not a word is wasted and the result is eye-opening.
Read “The Price of Camouflage” in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Kiyoshi Hirawa is a poet, writer, and former police officer who was wrongfully terminated after reporting sexual misconduct and rape committed by fellow police officers. Most of Hirawa’s work focuses on trauma, resiliency, hope, and providing a voice for the unheard, ignored, and overlooked. The remainder drops a net deep into the ocean of humor, and every once in a while, hauls in a joke (catch and release, of course).