Oh' hate
Can you teach me how to sing
While so full of anger,
Fear, and pity?

Actually,
I do not want
Your lessons.

They always end in bloodshed.

I do not want your levels
Of comradery,
Your airs of solidarity,
Your photo-op hashtag
Trending to nowhere.

The smell of your hallow
Progress without policy

Smells of

Smothered concrete,
Choked promises,
Robbed lives.

The naivety of the structure
Of you and yours
Was partly my fault.

In my callow privilege
I felt there was something wrong but,
As James Baldwin told me,

You don’t know what’s happening on the other side of the wall, because you don’t want to know

For too long
Have labels and complicity
Kept White America

the Black Americans
And people of color
You promised over years of violence change
Down and at bay.

There can be no more songs.
No more duets.
No more concerts where
We sway underneath a joined milk way.

In truth,

There is nothing left to say.

There is only

What to do as one

Or without you.