I feel compelled to post and speak
But my education feels too bleak
Yet blacks and whites and others too
See the harm the policemen do

I am white
But I'm not dumb
I see an action so blatantly wrong
The harm that the policemen have done

The people are out and the streets are loud
They will not rest until justice is found
One name fires up the nation
Yet the harm continues, little hesitation

There are good, but there are bad
People on every side of the issue are mad
But it's hard to deny the facts
Unlawfully taken lives can't be given back

Speak up for what is true and what is right
Even if you're scared since you are white
I know you aren't dumb
Help be the change that needs to come

closed minds,
provide for the loudest mouths,
while everyone is
quietly weird

They set us so carelessly upon the trees;
despite our wails, screams, and pleas, we
become dying fruit for the fleas.
Institutionalized and criminalized, we live a life of fear.
They sneer, jeer at the sight of us at life’s rear.
Our plight against contempt makes for a militant man
as we just try to be as real as we can.
To them, our efforts are never enough,
for them, our pain is never enough.
We strive for equality, liberty, happiness, and life.
In turn, we receive hatred, anger, and strife.
Murdered and ***** and torn next to our loved ones.
In response, we give a passion greater than the Sun’s.
All of our lives, we have had to fight.
Striking back against their wrath, destroying their blight.

They set us so wrongly upon their boat;
after we are spent, we are set to float.
I wonder about real life,
“What does it feel like?”
Torment should not be equal to pigment,
and there is nothing to warrant such abhorrent torrents.
We are not equal and never have been the same.
When we speak out, we are silenced; liberty too tamed.
They set us so harshly upon the pyre;
the extermination of desire,
the death of liberty as a killing fire.

There is another pandemic
Sweeping across the country
The more pigment you have
The more you're at risk
If you disobey
You die
There is no end in sight

I heard there are riots
downtown for George
Chauvin is going to fry
In more ways than one.
I don't think it will make things better.
But it's a start

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

another protest
october sun in knoxville
chilly but
the leaves still shake green
krutch park,
patches of grass brim with bodies
tent *****, occupying
you and I
munch on six dollar subs
after the general assembly
crisp air carrying
the taste of spring
that same elusive flavor
which rolled on the tongue
during Arab Spring. but I
remember
how that ended.

another protest
riots
reading Stonewall
post-MLK assassination
at the Gandhi-King conference
I wonder why there're no children,
just adults, tired,
all their experience
cloistered
in empty classrooms and powerpoints.

another protest,
hands up
blocking intersections
my phone buzzes
but I can’t hear it
"why are you wasting your time?"
he growls later.

another protest,
another black body.
extra credit in the sixth grade
nearly failing English -
"write about Jim Crow" -
I lost myself
counting names:
oppression prefers continuity.

now,
far from home,
too far,
fifty dollars bail
still sounds too paltry
but there’s little left now.
twitter feeds are burning buildings
pepperspray and milk.
mouth dry, I watch,
I count the names again,
I hope tomorrow we won’t need
another protest.

Acknowledge: the infinitesimally small chance
of any of us being born,
with utterly no choice
regarding shape, size or colour

A quirk of an elegant double helix
mixed by the hand of years and years
leads to our underbite
or sticking out ears
or skin

Imagine then: some folk in this long odds dice game
are deemed by implicit consensus  
to have lost at birth
and the cost is constant denigration
and a knee on the neck

That any of us from the species **** sapiens
could have hearts that are stopped
by the cruelty of blind chance is ridiculous
and should be seen and felt by all,
and rage should follow