Your color differs, that is true, but your color does not define you. My brother in this country please get back up. The emotional lashes upon your back are healing, and together we can stop this. My brother in strength please grab my hand, for we will change this together. My brother please help me through this journey for I am colored as well. My brother please get back up for this is not our last lash but our last time from staying down. Get up and show that racism is dead and we are not.

My hands tremble from the burden you give me. My time is taken from the burden you bestow upon many. My check is limited from the black coal you hold so dear. I clock in, I clock out. My back aches of misery and advil. I lye on my death bed waiting to realize that today, today I am awake, but far from alive..

Longing for a breath to fill my lungs, Waiting to stop my anxious hands, Hesitating my every move., Obfuscated on my very being. I  feel trapped inside myself, and stressed about the tomorrow. I wake up to realize that is just how life works...

Your heart is burdened with the chains of despair. The lock is attached to my ankles, rattling, dragging me along with you. My hand grasping for the soul I once knew, but now is long forgotten. My tears shed for the past but long for the future. Your eyes gleam in the light of infernal affinity. I am no longer the same boy, but forever your man.

It was you, it was you who stole my dreams.

One by one death takes its toll. In the worst times, death creeps in like a mouse finding its food. You try and prepare, and you,you think you're ready, but one by one death takes its toll.