Hello PoetryVoting

Vote

Voting-Boards

Home

HomeFollowingInboxNotifications

Read

ReadLiftedFeedsHeartedHistoryMy WritingNew poem

Explore

ExploreOrbitsWordsTagsClassics
Log in
0
Stars
0
Embers
0
Alerts
0
Inbox

Vote

Voting-Boards

Home

HomeFollowingInboxNotifications

Read

ReadLiftedFeedsHeartedHistoryMy WritingNew poem

Explore

ExploreOrbitsWordsTagsClassics
Log in
0
Stars
0
Embers
0
Alerts
0
Inbox

Why Do They Act That Way?

by mark-lecuona

For it is written to grant forgiveness No matter difference or malfeasance To never speak ill of one another Or deny each other our subsistence All men are created equal parchment Holding these truths to be self-evident The oppression of the Kings colony Patriotic revolutionary Migrating minds irrational to sane Reserved safe harbor but to others pain Land of self-righteousness and victory Exceptionalism and destiny Ships billowing with holds of chattel slaves Fractional human beings ordained graves Until brother killed brother for freedom Assassination emancipation Forty acres and a mule recompense Jim Crow separate but equal pretense Lynch mob street justice terrorism rope Vietnam veteran unable to cope James Earl Ray bullet Memphis balcony Bull Connor another dead Kennedy Black power fist raised Mexico City Malcolm X panther Muhammed Ali White supremacy freedom riders dead Mississippi white cross on fire dread Rodney King can’t we just get along plea Is skin color all we will ever see? Should they get over their Mockingbird past Should they burn the city or should they fast? Oh Lord should we turn a cheek in silence Or fight with Kings dream of non-violence?
Request permission to use this poem
Written by
mark-lecuona
American
For You?
Written by
mark-lecuona
American
Published
Nov 25, 2014
Lines·Words
39·189
Notes

It's just something to think about... I'm not saying anything except there's a history that maybe needs to be remembered if we are to understand... and I don't mean understand criminal behavior. I just mean to understand despair... I wrote this as a "Heroic Couplet" (10 syllables per line) just to raise the bar of complexity...

Tags
#racism#ferguson
Permission

Request to use this poem

Tell mark-lecuona how you would like to use it. We review requests before forwarding them.

AboutBlogFAQPrivacyTermsContact
© 2009-2026 Hello Poetry/v27.0 by @eliotyork
Explore
Hello PoetryVoting
Write