"I can't breathe." - George Flloyd

"I don't have a a gun, stop shooting!" -Michael Brown

"What are you following me for?" -Trayvon Martin

"...." -Jonathan Ferrell

"I love you too." -Sean Bell

Stop. Killing. Innocent. People.

i find it incredible
that you can look me dead in the eye
ignoring my dead comrade
and talk about the justice in this country
when the judge, jury, and executioner of the blacks
sits in the executive branch, alone
brandishing their badge
retrofitted to read "officer"
rather than "slave catcher"
and truth is framed as false
against their flimsy fabrications of innocence
that amazes me

i find it incredible
that you can be surprised by those boys in blue
beating our black skin blacker 'n' blue
'till red runs down our cheeks like tears from our eyes
so used to witnessing this onslaught of slaughter
that we can't cry tears half the time
that amazes me

i find it incredible
that you can honestly ask me
"how could this happen?"
as i fail to find footing
on this razor thin line
between being blinded by tears
trembling with grief, anger, and fear
and being so numb i can't speak
feeling like a monster for a lack of reaction
to the atrocities i have to witness
i've found a happy-less medium
and must be content to remain numb with rage
that amazes me

i find it incredible
that you can graciously remind me not to forget white and blue
while i scream into the void that i matter, too
unless, of course, i happen to be brandishing a hairbrush
or somehow disrupt your white life
then you quickly affix an asterisk to the word "all"
that amazes me

i find it incredible
that you can proudly proclaim your allyship
and in the same breath explain how
that black was a criminal
but i'm one of the "good ones"
because i'm not ghetto
and conditioned code switches into my DNA
so i'm not a threat unless i ask you to reel it in
and just possibly stop saying "******"
it triggers panic and makes me sick
when it falls from your pale lips
yet i stomach it and swallow my anxiety
sitting with a twisting gut in your presence
that amazes me

i find it incredible
that you seem to have this superpower
pulling you from awareness into blissful oblivion
that i can only imagine
because your life's not on the line
that amazes me

He raised up his head,
Trying to speak,
Yet speaking nothing.

She opened her mouth,
Trying to mutter words,
Yet nothing coming out.

I can't breathe
Words never to be forgotten

I can't breathe
Words we carry on placards

I can't breathe
Words kicking down whiteness

I can't breathe
Words doing-away with racism

I can't breathe
Words demanding equality

I can't breathe
Words bridging the white and black gap

I can't breathe
Words changing the times

I can't breathe
Words destroying white supremacy

I can't breathe
Words uniting colors

I can't breathe
Words uniting races

I can't breathe
Words signifying unity

I can't breathe
Words causing race inequality uproar

I can't breathe
Words knocking down white brutality

I can't breathe
Words ending police brutality

I can't breathe
Words
Great words
Creating equality for all race
Ending police brutality
Doing-away white supremacy
Uniting all race
Uniting all colors
A must for all nations

Written by Tosan Oluwakemi Thompson

A brown man
Standing,
Shouting,
Speaking radicalising words.
Marching as to war
Showing placards of his grief,
Depicting foreheads of vagabonds,
Reminding others of past slavery.
Their de-subjectification of freedom
Their voices,
A singular connotation of enough-is-enough
An appetite for recognition
A planting for equality
A right to color
A plea bargain for respect,
Yet writing a throwaway of discrimination.
A caged bird,
Wanting to soar far beyond whiteness.
Demanding equal previlege
A demand costly but needed
Their melancholy of racial assimilation
Our sanguine of identity

Their windspread of hatred
Our moment to canvas light
Black
A shadow of itself
A belonging for many
A colour they deem despicable,
Yet a horizon we cherish.
Looking to the future
A beautiful future
I too
She too
He too
Us too
They too
Black too
Will sit at the table of colors
A dream I hope so dear

Written by Tosan Oluwakemi Thompson

Police brutality is a huge factor
Continue to move forward & never look backwards
I pray for loved ones in 2020 that we lost
Fighting for equality like me no matter the cost
Police tells us nobody is above the law
Yet kneeling on your neck, staring you down as if they’re God
My weapon is my fist & my 45
I assure you I will protect my family & what is mine

Police brutality is a huge factor
Killing blacks one-by-one like we don’t matter
Rioters riot while protesters are beaten in the news
Cops speak in codes, waiting on a signal from their superior just to execute
Trying to survive 2020 dog, somehow
Praying racism will be gone so our color can bloom now
Being black in America is beautiful in my eyes
Keep chanting “BLACK LIVES MATTER” no matter what, & everything will be alright

From off the pores of pitch-black skin,
Floyd's soul saps aways,
Little by Little,
One last time
One last effort
One last fruitless plea
In tinny scraps of air
Pushed up from greying lumens
Sourly yields a quashed neck coldening ,
The sore man sighs the last of life,
The man with the loathed shade met his end

We will never forget the names of those
Who should have been known for so much more.

Sandra Bland. George Floyd. Tamir Rice. Riah Milton. James Scurlock. Rem'Mie Fells. Breonna Taylor. Too many to name. 400 years.

We remember them for all they could have been.
Not martyrs. Murdered.
People living and then gone forever.

White supremacy is not poetic. It is a blunt instrument.
We must fight it every day.

I needed a minute;
to stand in the rain,
to feel it’s droplets toss and slide down my face,
to allow me to be washed clean of sin,
to be one with nature,
earth and the heavens,
to be kissed by the rain in all the right places.
I felt it’s every kiss on my skin
Cold, no doubt its kisses were but nevertheless magical.
As I stood there with feet planted into the ground and soaked to the core,
I thought; I am a tree planted on fertile soil with roots extending deep into mother earth.
Why should I not thrive?
this right here is FREEDOM,
I live!