Unequally democratic,
Laws made equally,
punishments biased.

Kills for the Black man,
Patience for the white.

"I can't breathe"
He cried.
Phones recorded,
Yet
He died.

A black man's life,
At a packet of cigarettes price.

A white man kills,
Yet still alive.

Justice we seek.
What they had promised to provide.
Yet we take on these streets.
Again, to fight.

We take on these streets with your name in bold.
History books will proclaim you as gold.

In hopes that your name will be the last.

We will fight 7 years for your 7 minutes.
We will breathe.
We will breathe.

how long
will this song
play on repeat?

when will they
hear it?

sticks and stones
will break bones
and a knee will take a life

tear gas and barricades
will need first aids
and rubber bullets will take eyes

signs and chants
dismissed as rants
and a point that will keep being missed

America.
A place where guns used to be raised in freedom, but are now pointed at the lives of the innocent
America.
A land founded on the belief that anyone could come to start their lives over, but now prohibits those with a different skin color
America.
A country established by immigrants, but now closes its doors to them
America.
Where our founding fathers feared nothing, but now we fear everything even remotely different from us
America.
Where red, white and blue once meant innocence and valor, but now stands for black blood and terror
America.
Land of the beaten and beaters,
Home of the spineless leaders.

when
will it be
okay

to be human?

when
will skin be

beautiful?

when
will we
be able to

breathe?

the snow lays thick

atop the dirt

frozen wastelands

ruined earth

Why did you used violence
When he doesn’t have weapons?
Why did you used violence
And left all his children
Fatherless?

I wonder what is with the brutality
Choked a helpless man on the street
He was willing to do your order, let go of your knee
When he said he can’t breathe

Why did you used violence
Without any good reason?
Why did you used violence
When he was innocent?

Why did you used violence
Is it because he is a black person?
Now it’s not your concern
Because now he can breathe peacefully in heaven

The melanin in our skin,
leaves open a gateway for hate.
It is where violence and bigotry breed
at the hands of those meant to protect.
Was our skin color God’s mistake?

What is fed to us as seeds,
grows into fires filled with rage as we mature.
The cycle is inevitable, at best,  
foreshadowing the entirety of our lives.
Placing those sprouted through hate into an inescapable prison,
filled with fires which cannot be extinguished.
Warranting these fires to burn within us, was God’s only mistake.
We will not be put out.
I.M

These drapes are heavy built
The sunlight will happily bounce off of their light exterior
There is no need to look beyond the drapes
The drapes that prove to be fatal
Wrapped around each ignorant mind

Now bare we stand strong
Facing the sun we see nothing of what we thought

Hijabs fall to the floor
Kangas ripped
Rebozos torn and thrown

The blood spilt is red
Unable to distinguish the blood by race
Many know that pale skin is often stained red

The Drapes are a comfort
Some never want to seek further
Those who do find the truth

The ashes of the fallen stick to their feet
The rubble created by power hungry individuals
Are hot to the touch

“I am an American citizen.”
“I cant breathe.”
“I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.”

The drapes are now being recognized and torn down
We stand together
Fighting for basic human rights

We will walk the movement
Even at our lowest point we will still stand tall
And never seek comfort in the drapes again

This country was built on broken backs
yet we still have to crawl on broken glass
Beg for mercy and thank you warmly
when you lift the boot from our throats
lest we come off as uncivilized--
your comfort is worth more than our lives