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afteryourimbaud May 2020
George pleaded for his life
begged to breathe, requested
the continuity of his own existence
before the lynch with a knee
on the commemoration day
of many lives that have burned in vain
violent resistance on detention
a fabrication out of desperation
when all they had was the sick joy
of seeing an innocence in pain
fell silent and motionless
once and for all,
and he too, has burned in vain.

do not let that be a fact.

Eric waits, and now
George too.
In the memory of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery and many.
monique ezeh May 2020
are you tired yet? are you tired?

do you hear the screams? do you hear the wails? the pain?

are you tired yet? are you tired?

do you smell the mass graves (you always smell them before you see them)? do you smell the ash? the rotting flesh?

are you tired yet? are you tired?

do you feel the dirt under your fingernails (it’ll never be washed clean)? do you feel the skin rubbed raw? do you feel the muscles so tense that tendons give way? your eyes are still open— do you feel the burn yet?

are you tired yet? are you tired?

do you taste the blood? do you taste the iron? the red clay coating your tongue?

are you tired yet? are you tired?

do you see the blood? the broken glass? the smoke? the fire?

are you tired yet? are you tired?
can you see it yet? can you see anything?
are you tired?

tape your eyes open. you are not allowed to look away.
imagine what it feels like to be unable to close your eyes.
imagine what it feels like to have your eyes glued shut.
imagine being unable to ever choose.
Lama May 2020
violence on the streets
the man is begging to breathe

cut the last shred of hope
rioters walking on lonely bones

fire on their hearts
pain filled the carts

no place to escape
hell with the fool babbling hearsay

their feet stay where the innocents bleed
violent sounds made the city sweep

with rebellion comes what may
ancient wounds won’t obey
justice for George Floyd!!!!
Tarzan May 2020
You say you want to make the country great again
But those days they don’t seem so great to me.
Rose colored glasses, filter out that ****** red
Double standards, when down on one knee.
You can’t run, you can’t walk, You are forced to work a job,
Pro-life only applies if you are free

We’re all free. oh yes,
But some are freer than the rest
Free to spout lies, frame crimes,
**** a man on the street.

So Mr. President tell me what is there to do
Will you reach across the room to move us forward?
Or will you sit in you’re ivory tower,
Pointing fingers, yelling “Liar!”
Oh I think I know the way it’s gonna be...

Cause it’s a dark night,
In the kingdom of 45
With death tolls on the rise,
He won’t cover up his mouth, But he’ll cover up your eyes.

So Mr. President tell me what is there to do
Will you reach across the room to move us forward?
Or will you tee off your emerald green,
Say another thing obscene,
Oh I think I know the way it’s gonna be...
Lilla May 2020
This is America
Where it is legal to **** a trans or lgbtq person
This is America
Where POC fear just going for a run or speaking
This is America
Where our president is a known ****** predator
This is America
Where only 6% of the monsters go to jail
This is America
Where I'm ashamed to be
This is America
Where I hate to be
I'm ashamed to be here, I really am
Emma Apr 2020
The words of the King, said long ago and towards a vision of he who no longer breathes,
Of a future where different colored children are intertwined and men sees but not seethes,
Spoken by a man of dark skin who rose to be the king of freedom and equality and love,
Spoken in front of tall white buildings and spoken below a flying white dove.

He said, “I have a dream,” and those four words became a legend told to the next century
He raised his hands and shouted to the sky above, “Freedom and liberty!”
Even as decades went by those words were repeated and repeated, darkness into dawn,
And when children ask for the source, men say, “The Luther King is his name” to the fawns.

Yet of new times, southern states are still with loaded shotguns, ebonic skin shun red in the sun
Voices heard, yet brown children still fall seperated and their killers still hold loaded guns
Their mother(less)s hold them—Pietà—and shout to the sky above, “Freedom and liberty!”
And marches with signs saying “Black Lives Matter” carry the wake and funeral for equality.

Reaper comes to take the child, yet in death's place is the plants of a possible future of hope
Where society rebuilds and remakes and rehashes and restores, for light we wish to *****
“Is justice and righteousness rolling down?” "Is it like a mighty river who saves?”
We the people ask, and the King wonders too—the King, your king, who watches from his grave.
After almost a year of inactivity, I return with a poem made for a religion assignment. This is based around Amos 1:9 from the Bible as well as Martin Luther King's speeches and Letter from Birmingham. "Strange Fruit," the Pieta statue, and BLM also come to play in this. During this quarantine, I hope to go back to being active on this site like I was when I first joined. It was made 4/17/20.
Kenechukwu Mar 2020
Dylan’s roof covers your house supposedly,
But you can’t go through the front door,
you don’t even have a key.

You see, Dylan’s roof covers your head
ever so reluctantly
But Dylan won’t kick you out,
you were brought here to work for free.

Dylan doesn’t like you
or anyone with your complexion
But Dylan won’t admit it,
he’d rather ‘serve and protect’ his brethren.
By serve and protect I mean swerve and reject.
Any responsibility for a bullet in your chest.

You see, Dylan’s roof doesn’t just cover 52 states
It covers millions of your reflection
that share melanated traits.

The windows under Dylan’s roof give you a glimpse of your potential.
Freedom and happiness.
You trace the future with a stencil.

After some time,
Dylan’s roof will start to dissipate.
The rains of your liberation
will begin to precipitate.

The seeds that were planted
by the ones gone before us,
will start to germinate
in the fields that once tore us
On the 17th of June 2015, Dylan Roof walked into ‘Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church’ in downtown Charleston, South Carolina and killed nine innocent black people. He was arrested so very gently.
monique ezeh Feb 2020
Not until you can see the pain in our eyes, the scars on our skin, the protruding ribs and distended stomachs of malnourishment, till you can gape at small black bodies disfigured by kwashiorkor and colonization, till you can gasp at people that don’t look like you being branded like cattle, like animals on their way to the slaughterhouse
(and thank goodness we’ve come so far, things used to be so bad)

Not until you can marvel at the mottled marks of a whip, the black and blue bruising only white hands can inflict, till you can shake your head at teens boldly drinking under a whites only sign, till you can cover your mouth and peek through fingers at the water hoses, the dogs, the guns, the blood— black blood on black bodies in black and white photographs
(and you inwardly sigh, relieved that it was so long ago and so far away)

Not until you can retweet teenagers face to face with riot gear and tear gas, till you can shake your head and show that you’re different because your black studies class told you so, till you can give a 40 character message about how sickening the violence is, but you keep watching the videos of him her him her him her him her him her
them
shot choked kicked punched beaten whipped slapped
killed
by government sanctioned executioners

Not until you can see everything but understand nothing

Always have to be ugly raw hurting bleeding suffering
Why can’t we be smiling laughing eating dancing breathing

Why can’t we be smiling

Why
been thinking a lot about the pervasive voyeurism of black suffering, of how widely circulated images of suffering and death are. i don't want to see another image of a black person dying in the street. i don't think i can.
Austin James Jan 2020
They say the way through is the way out.
They don't want us to weigh in--just to stay out.
A closed mouth is a silent shout,
But the people can't hear us when we shut our mouths.
If you speak up it's too loud,
Too black and too proud.
Just a shade too dark.

But there's a remedy for that,
Another bullet in a black back.
Souls turned desolate
Another bully lackin' black tact
Black man--white cop.
Gun cocked
pop, pop
Two shots
No thoughts
Un-armed, life lost
Cheeks turn
Hate costs.
Just a shade to dark.

Red handed as the blood spills.
Black bodies turned to buzz kills.
If the people don't acquit 'em you know the judge will.
And you try to tell me times ain't what they was still?
Just another ni**a in a white world.
They tryin' to wipe our history--white whirl.
Dismantling families killing off the "villain".
An infection to them "white folk" and them bullets penicillin.
Mass incarceration and gentrification too,
The wounds from the hatred have pierced us to the roots.
They try to call us thugs and force us from the roost,
But all lives will matter when the black ones finally do.

I guess we're just a shade too dark.
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