***** with brownness that I can't wash away.
Born into a filth that made me unhygienic before my feet could touch the ground
Before my hands could grasp objects other than my mothers hand or chest or face
Guilty before the gavel was struck
Before the cell was locked
Before the siren rang off
Guilty of brownness that is not innocent until proven guilty
Rather brown until proven worthy
Brown until the grave
assigned to us before we have a chance to see the world and become who we're suppose to be
Graves are becoming just as crowded as those ships they brought us here in
Stuffed and cramped like the cells they keep us in
Piling bodies on bodies while blood cells fill the avenues we march in
Graves over crowded
Hearts over hurt
Innocent with a guilt I can't wash away.
Our mothers can't hold us now.

Your mind is something so
unfathomable to be.
I want to explore the depths
of most vacant hours
let me carve my name into
your heart so I remain a
part of you forever.
I’ll read the poetry you keep
hidden beneath your scars-
I’ll live in the dark cathedrals
of your thoughts so the
voices that torture you can’t
wash waves of melancholy
over your skeletal.

**-DB