#prejudice poems on Hello Poetry

Sombro Sep 2015

The river valley was cleaved beneath the rushing horse’s hooves
As dragons beat against the sky, to roar, and so to prove
The might of beasts against the foe, this ‘mankind’ they oppose
But black the night was, truly so, Sir Crowshirron composed.

His lance flew banners, dark as jets, into the dragon’s keep
He split the fire with shield and steed in one almighty leap.
The castle stood of smelted glass as grey as stormy skies
Each tower stood as instrument to ring the dragon cries.

The sturdy gate split as a twig, weak to the black knight’s sword
And then the drawbridge split asunder, board by petty board.
Inside the court the black knight strode, cape flayed the dragon fire
Up marched the knight, dark steel alight up to its crooked spire.

There he saw the demon’s claw clutching ill-gained prize
A screaming child, from pastures wild, with terror in its eyes.
The Black Knight gave no motion and no outcry passed his helm
He stood up taller, prouder still and challenged the dragon’s realm.

They say that lightning split the sky about the battle field
And that after days of endless rage the knight refused to yield.
Down swooped the dragon, teeth and claws, to shower fire and rain
But still the knight would hold his sword and stand to fight again.

Until the moon propped up the sky and broke the dragon’s flight
The black beast smashed into the keep, split by the black knight’s might
There it lay, curled in dismay, smote by mortal hand
He told the dragon, word and sword, to leave this fragile land.

But dying breaths of stricken foes stilled breathed their poisoned fire
The dragon’s head, eyes running red, made clear his cruel desire
‘Finish me whelp, lest you do, I’ll return and seek your defeat,
But if I die, know this, you shall not be thanked for this brave feat.

A black knight you are and so shall be until the end of days
For all will see a soulless husk, not worthy of their praise.
For dragonslayer you are within, a man with strength and might.

Yet your soul will know that they see only a Black Knight.
They’ll run you from their homes at dawn, they’ll make you see the light
For words from mouths as black as tar make weak the dragon’s bite.’

The Knight looked down upon the beast and ‘fore he stabbed his lance
He showed his smile unto the brute and broke the dragon trance
With floating heart he took the child back to her anxious town
He set her down in front of those who gave a blackened frown.

‘We cannot take this child again, her soul is sure corrupted
You and the beast, two monsters, have held her uninterrupted
For though we good folk try to live there are demons such as you
And now that you have seen her she is not the child we knew. ‘

The black knight took the child back to the shattered dragon’s keep
And seeing the slain corpse of the beast the child began to weep
‘He kept me here, with gifts and love and laughter for my heart
He told me he’d no family and now he had a start

‘Sweet daughter’ he would call to me, ‘I wish to see you please’
And still you slew him, seeing threat, not person, with great ease.
We are a kind, us three poor souls, not like the ‘normal’ men
we give ourselves to people who will ne’er love us again.’

There the knight stood, till the moon lit the sight
Of gentle dragon without his might
‘Family.’ He said softly, and shut his eyes tight,
‘I could have had a family.’ Wept the black, the broken knight.

A comment on prejudice and discrimination, not only based on physical attributes, but emotional as well.

#pain #knight #emotion #segregation #prejudice

Sami Rose Sep 2015

The Conscious Enemy

The limping man
entered a world of difference and prejudice
carried by civilization.
Sorrows beyond our
understanding celebrated the right to be alone
in wasted conformity.
He is ashamed
inwardly of transcending fear making persistence
step into impulse.
His cure hooked
the tyranny of repeatedly abused witnesses with
harassing all freedoms.
Injustice regained its
function by stretching a new idea of
the conscious enemy.
-s.r.b.

#society #persistence #injustice #prejudice #civilization #witnesses

Cheyenne Sep 2015

May Your Eyes Deceive Me

Listen to your demons;
They have a lot to say.
Consider, now, the chaos:
It can take your breath away.

Play the devils advocate:
Be shocked by your own speech.
Play with fire, dance with monsters,
Contemplate what they preach.

Hear the echoes in the silence,
Though the resonance is faint.
See the figures in the darkness
Meaning light still remains.

Stare into oblivion.
Embrace the great abyss.
Find beauty in the question:
Can nothingness exist?

And you think it is as simple
As telling black from white;
Little do you know, my love,
That it's just a trick of the light.

#illusion #prejudice #misconceptions #bias

Brent Kincaid Sep 2015

MATLAW'S

I got off the bus
At Eighteenth and Vine
Everything in the window
I wanted to be mine
Beautiful shirts there,
Suits, shoes and hats.
But I couldn’t buy them
No, I couldn’t do that.

I was the wrong color
For Matlaw’s, He said.
That place was for coloreds
And rich pimps instead
Not a tow-headed white boy
What hasn’t got much sense.
I went there that one time
But, I haven’t been since.

But, oh I wanted that suit,
With cranberry hat and shoes.
Even though I had no place
To ever wear it, I knew.
But, I love that store there
On eighteenth and Vine
Even though I knew nothing
In that store could be mine.

The bus went by there
Every day I passed it by.
To this day, I grieve
And never understood why
A Caucasian market
Like I represented
Might go there inside there
And be soundly resented.

It wasn’t a good thing
It’s just how it was then
Before the civil rights thing
Would finally begin.
But I never knew colors
They way others did.
But, what did I know?
I was just a young kid.

But, oh I wanted that suit,
With cranberry hat and shoes.
Even though I had no place
To ever wear it, I knew.
But, I love that store there
On eighteenth and Vine
Even though I knew nothing
In that store could be mine.

#poetry #prejudice #clothing #brent #racial #kincaid #segregatoin

AJ Aug 2015

Hate Me

I’m a witch when in the fire:
the taste, just like acid
dropping down the hole.

I’m a witch when I get out of here,
so devastated was the
dilapidated Ferris wheel.

I’m a witch when my mother comes
and succors me along,
but she don’t like
what I’ve been doing
at the witching hour--
only time I got to raise my flag.

I’m a witch when they come in
to make a martyr out of
flesh and bone. I live for the day
the people gather round’
and weep for the child of
ignorance and recreational hate.

I’m a witch when the riot
raise their fire. I’m unholy
so the temple must go down.

One, three, five, six,
give me, give me all of it.
I can take a lot, you see,
my will is unrelenting.

#hate #ignorance #stupidity #nonconformity #prejudice #salem #witch

Olivia Robinson Jul 2015

Untitled (rough draft).

I don't apologize for my blackness and your fear seems like this beautiful melanin enriched skin is a blessing and a curse. police offers using our young men's as target practice ripping our rich black roots from the ground and scathing them them all over the cold blood stained concrete streets that my people paved.they just want us to dance sing and play ball to entertain them. they don't want us to succeed and move on to bigger and better things so sinister grins creep upon their faces as they watch us slaughter eachother in the streets. they watch us struggle to get out of poverty they say we're all on welfare and ain't **** but how can we move up in the world and get out of poverty when this system wasn't built to benefit us? we are more than the stereotypes. we are doctors lawyers entrepreneurs nurses designers filmmakers activist.we are intelligent intellectual beings with knowledge that surpasses all understanding. they don't want us to open our mouths and speak our truth...they want us to shut up and chuck and jive and kiss their pasty white ***** to the bone they want us to ignore the blatant racism and discrimination we face everyday and be content that we aren't enduring as much pain as the ones before us have. but we will not shut up. we do experience racism. we do experience discrimination. and our people are dying everyday from it.how dare you utter the words respect yourself and well respect your from the same mouth that slandered my ppl and taught us to hate ourselves with? we were taught to love everything that was white and hate everything that was black and love blonde long straight hair and blue eyes and hate our chocolate skin and ***** hair but these ***** roots are deep...no matter how much you try and destroy them they are deep and run through us all. so my brothers and sisters... be proud of your roots take care of your roots embrace your roots love everything about yourself from that ***** *** hair that breaks all the teeth of your comb to your chocolate skin that glows in the sunlight and those strong minds and powerful voices because black is beautiful, black is powerful black is brilliant, black matters.

poem I wrote a while ago around the time of the Mike Brown case. it's not finished.

#white #stereotype #racism #prejudice #discrimination #supremacy #blacklivesmatter

Francie Lynch Jun 2015

Squirrel Wars

The greys and blacks
Are fighting again,
Despite an abundance
Of food and shelter.
The greys are malcontent,
And bigger, with increasing numbers.
They've declared a Jihad,
They're relentless;
And won't stop 'til they've
Occupied all the trees out front.
The trees in question aren't the issue;
Others have similar branches and fruits;
It's their belief system
Territory is everything;
It's their manifest destiny.

During a lull in fighting
They graze side by side,
Always wary of proximity;
But the greys know
Their tails are larger and thicker,
And they recognize the enemy.

I know better
Than interfere
With their shenanigans.
Oh, I could quell the activity,
Scare them for a while
Pelting stones and gushing water;
But they'll re-group, stronger,
Like ants,
Like us.
It's a conflict I can't fix.
They need to figure it out
On their own.

The world is nuts.

#racism #prejudice #holywars #jihads #zenophobia

LS Jun 2015

A Rant

Who gives a **** about the clothes you wear or the color of your skin or the way you talk or who you love or what ink you have or how you do your makeup or what weight you are or what you got pierced because none of it should matter.

We should give a **** about what you've accomplished and how you choose to express yourself and what you want to be not who you were or are.

All of society is thinking about how the outside reflects the inside, and it does. But people think you have to have a certain kind of outside to have a good inside; formal clothes, formal speaking, no criminal record, a certain skin color, a certain sexuality, no visible tattoos and dear god take that piece of metal out of your nose.
And if you don't have the right outside, you are not professional enough, not smart enough, and you don't care enough.

Well excuse me. I didn't know I had to care so much I had to hide who I really am.

#society #change #prejudice

Crucifix May 2015

needs

Not everyone needs angels. But I know I need mine.
not everyone needs a savior. But all I have is mine.
Ill never force it on you. Or make you say its true.
Just don't ask me to explain myself. I owe nothing to you.
I believe in equal rights. I also go to church. I believe in contradiction or coincidence or faith.
I believe there are other ways to heaven then what's written on a page.

I have religious beliefs that explain how my brain works.
and personal beliefs that explain how my heart works.

#faith #me #angels #belief #contradiction #prejudice

George Krokos May 2015

The Level Playing Field

A few words need to be said about the level playing field
and the relative benefits to those concerned it does yield.
If those who are in authority are not impartial in their ways
the effect of this is reflected back to all no matter who plays.

There are however some exceptions to the rule
regardless of what we have all learnt at school.
Whether it be sport, business, industry, research or education
the level playing field applies to each and every situation.

When certain people are prejudiced towards one person or group
and show too much favor for one party then the other they’ll dupe.
This practice is known to be a form of much corruption and deceit
and should be recognized by all those who’re in the grip of receipt.
_______________

Written in 2014.

#field #deceit #practice #playing #corruption #prejudice #level