Domestic destruction
Detonation
Dehumanization
People are breathing their last breaths
But we will call it
civilian casualty

Bullets ringing like bells through the air
Bones cracking like the whips we have "long since" retired

A terrorist without the skin tone
Or the turban
Is called
troubled

We keep the death toll
Like keeping score

Pointing fingers
But never at home team

The flag is colored
Red with our blood
White like our pride
And blue like our sorrow

And you boo when people kneel
Seeing them pushed down by the weight of the injustices we perpetuate
****** you off

Because people died for that flag
Like the unnamed slaves-turned-soldiers
Who never had a choice when bullets littered their backs
Dying for a country they didn't ask to be in

The taking knees
Doesn't honor that proud history
It doesn't fit the status quo
The picture of
America the brave
And home of the free(d)

The freedom of speech
Our favorite card to play
Until someone has something important to say

So build the wall ten feet higher

We gave children dreams
now we ship back the dreamers
To a land they never dreamt of

Ten feet higher

We shot unarmed kids in the back
Blaming the bullet
Not the blue who pulled the trigger

Ten feet higher

We marched with swastikas held high
Alt right
Neo ****
No, sorry
White Pride

Ten feet higher

Add a foot for every black life that didn't matter enough
Add a foot for every white ****** that walked free
Add a foot for every family ripped apart
Add a foot for every terrorist that came from inside this country
Add a foot for every hate crime left unnoticed
Add a foot for every transgender person who can no longer serve
Add a foot for every injustice that will never be addressed
Add a foot for every life we could've saved in Puerto Rico

Red with blood
The flag is red with the blood we wiped from our hands.

Be aware
Be angry

have you ever cried upside down?
felt the tears stream up your face
down with gravity
and into all the wrong places?

felt the droplets, cooling as they race away from their mirrored origin,
slide over furrowed brow
across forehead and temple to dampen the sliver-thin hairs—
the ones that glow when lit from behind
—and rest where skin meets strand?

no
you have not felt these things
how could you have?
your world is always right side up.

I was used to you.
Each day was new.
Each time we played,
We played a different game.

Drifting through
The murky haze,
We’d think it through
And then we’d do.

I’m lost without your pleasant gaze.
Traveling down the roads we paved.
My soul was yours, the one you saved.
Our dreams they lived from day to day.

One day you left, it’s hard to say.
The bus came by and wrecked our day.
I miss you more as time goes by.
I often stop to wonder why.

That lasting kiss you left me with
Is all I taste, it’s all I feel.
The harmony you brought to me,
It filled the well inside my dreams.

My dearest one, I still see you,
Laughing, happy, loving me.
My heart is torn beyond compare.
These shoes are worn but I still care.

I can’t forget the plans we made.
Each day I live to honor thee.
The raging sea can’t quell our dreams.
The love we shared still sets me free.

By a stream

I walked lonely down by a stream watching falling leaves
I stood silently as dripping water came flooding down the trees
I thought of you and your smile I remember as the wind blew chilly in the breeze
I saw you in the street with another boy and you seemed pleased
I was scared of you and all the things you do but my god agreed
Maybe you'll change one day and ride the endless dark blue seas
I was in love with you and you were in love with me like the leaves that fell gradually the stream has different needs
I watched silently as the rain came down filling the flowing stream and I saw you there but the song of the wind just grieves