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#policebrutality
If you don’t bow to their power, If you dare not to cower, They have the right, They have the might, To take you by your head, Crush until you're dead, Then blame it on your meds. You're nothing but a victim, Lost inside a system, Built by ruling class, They tell us not to be so crass?! Got a letter from the feds, Heard everything I said, About tryna **** the state, Refuse to capitulate, Cops are at my door, My feet hit the floor, At more than just a jog, They killed my ******* dog?! You're nothing but a victim, Lost inside a system, Built by ruling class, They tell us not to be so crass?! Righteous only in the mind, A duty so precisely designed, To brutalize neighborhoods that’re undermined, A position historically intertwined, With those who hoisted it on their pride, It’s been revised to assure class conscious demise.
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Sep 21, 2024
Sep 21, 2024 at 4:49 PM UTC
Class Conscious Revival
This is a very important day A grand and glorious day The day on which we became a Republic Thanks to the guiding light Of Babasaheb Dr. B.R.Ambedkar The Architect of the Constitution And the True Father of the Nation If it were not for the great leader's efforts In creating such a precious document Many of us would have been denied Our basic rights and freedoms There would have been no equality Many of us would have been languishing In the gloomy confines of Tihar Jail In fact, many of us Wouldn't even have had the chance to live! This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or, is it really? Today is the day On which we take the pledge To follow and protect the Constitution But do we really follow it? Is there really equality everywhere? Is everyone getting their basic rights? Are we really a free country? Is our human rights record Really something to be proud of? This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or, is it really? If Dr. Ambedkar were alive today He would have been speechless With sheer shock and outrage At the way in which Our Constitution is being misused Whether it be innocents languishing in jail Or the atrocities inflicted by the trigger-happy police Or arbitrary bills being passed To benefit the rich and the powerful Or people being denied a chance to love Because they belong to different religions Or an entire state being trapped and besieged And cut off from any kind of communication whatsoever And of course, casteism in a myriad variety of forms At each and every level, whether overt or subtle The list goes on and on With no end in sight This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or rather, supposed to be In reality, a very sad day We are cowards at heart We wear our patriotism on our sleeves We scream from the rooftops India! India! India! But we never question injustice The sheer injustice perpetrated on a daily basis On many of our brethren Especially the marginalised communities They are also equally patriotic But we deny them the chance To even share the stage with us Till we, the privileged majority Acknowledge our complicity In all the injustice and inequality And start making amends In action, not mere words There is no point in celebrating Republic Day
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Jan 26, 2021
Jan 26, 2021 at 1:39 AM UTC
Republic Day Special 2021
This is a very important day A grand and glorious day The day on which we became a Republic Thanks to the guiding light Of Babasaheb Dr. B.R.Ambedkar The Architect of the Constitution And the True Father of the Nation If it were not for the great leader's efforts In creating such a precious document Many of us would have been denied Our basic rights and freedoms There would have been no equality Many of us would have been languishing In the gloomy confines of Tihar Jail In fact, many of us Wouldn't even have had the chance to live! This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or, is it really? Today is the day On which we take the pledge To follow and protect the Constitution But do we really follow it? Is there really equality everywhere? Is everyone getting their basic rights? Are we really a free country? Is our human rights record Really something to be proud of? This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or, is it really? If Dr. Ambedkar were alive today He would have been speechless With sheer shock and outrage At the way in which Our Constitution is being misused Whether it be innocents languishing in jail Or the atrocities inflicted by the trigger-happy police Or arbitrary bills being passed To benefit the rich and the powerful Or people being denied a chance to love Because they belong to different religions Or an entire state being trapped and besieged And cut off from any kind of communication whatsoever And of course, casteism in a myriad variety of forms At each and every level, whether overt or subtle The list goes on and on With no end in sight This is a very important day A grand and glorious day Or rather, supposed to be In reality, a very sad day We are cowards at heart We wear our patriotism on our sleeves We scream from the rooftops India! India! India! But we never question injustice The sheer injustice perpetrated on a daily basis On many of our brethren Especially the marginalised communities They are also equally patriotic But we deny them the chance To even share the stage with us Till we, the privileged majority Acknowledge our complicity In all the injustice and inequality And start making amends In action, not mere words There is no point in celebrating Republic Day
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69
There's no denying that id rather be with the angels flying; instead of stressing out about all of my people dying. To be honest I'm not sure what's killing us more, but it all needs to cease. All of these drugs flooding the streets or all of this brutality by the fuckin' police. Whatever happened to our peace? Its crazy if you ask me, knowing that police brutality is no longer seen as an abnormality. I never thought we could become so dark, but **** it, we let this become our reality. Kind of like how everyone's glorifying the "drug game", cause everyone thinks slanging that dope could lead you to fame. Tell me though, would it be worth it to give your Mama that shame? Its all fun and games until everyone wants you to take the blame, so do yourself a favor and don't listen to what these "gangsters" claim.
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Dec 17, 2020
Dec 17, 2020 at 7:47 PM UTC
Rather Be Flying
We hexed the moon We burned downtown We killed Carlos We started a plague We started riots We almost started a 3rd war We protested and got shot We killed our year We said it would be better We lied and broke it We tried and failed it And now I'm sick of resentment But we can improve it
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Sep 30, 2020
Sep 30, 2020 at 9:42 AM UTC
2020 (it's been a while but here I go)
thinking about how cops are beating protestors senseless not even 20 minutes from where i live. thinking about how they block off the streets and stand unmasked, batons in hand, other hand resting pointedly on their gun. thinking about how it could be me next— another unspecified black face and black body and black existence snuffed out— a hashtag, a mural. (and those are the lucky ones.) thinking about how a memorial is the best case scenario for a black life. thinking about the bodies in the street. thinking about blood splattering the ground, mixing with paint and obscuring the “black lives matter” lettering on the road. thinking about the chalk art and loud music in a neighborhood soon-to-be-gentrified. thinking about how we’ve grown used to the stench of rotting flesh outside our doors. thinking about the taste of blood in my mouth from my nearly-severed tongue i didn’t realize i was biting. thinking about the tension in my neck and jaw. thinking about the way my eyes never seem to close. thinking about the eyes that will never again open. thinking thinking thinking.
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Sep 27, 2020
Sep 27, 2020 at 4:27 PM UTC
11:23 pm
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
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Jun 17, 2020
Jun 17, 2020 at 2:56 PM UTC
Incredible Oblivion
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
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59
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
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Jun 16, 2020
Jun 16, 2020 at 2:16 PM UTC
Black Death
“From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” –William Shakespeare (Prologue to Romeo and Juliet) I was hewn from the helpless limbs of a tree Which could have grown To become something magnificent Through sanding and carving Through varnishing and the work of human hands I was formed In a way, the tree which was mutilated to give me life Was a foreshadowing of my truncheon fate I swing through the air once again A weapon in the hands of a vehement oppressor Skin splits Blood sprays Bone shatters Bodies litter the dust Staining the earth with crimson testament To the cruelty I have wrought Some of the figures are marred Reminiscent of the tree from which I was hewn Which died to give me life The dark throng of protestors Are but mortals Faced by the immortal power Of those lighter beings Who wield me, mercilessly I wish to weep For the destruction, pain Anguish I leave in my wake I wish I was still a living bough Capable of shedding resin tears Capable of yielding to greater forces Not to force the vulnerable to break But I cannot weep I cannot yield I am a baton A weapon in the hands of those who swore to protect Yet scythe down those who rise to protect what is rightfully theirs Ancient grudge of black and white Break to new mutiny of segregation Where civil blood of those who seek protection Makes civil hands who swore to guard them Unclean.
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Jun 6, 2020
Jun 6, 2020 at 6:59 AM UTC
Cato Manor – A police baton’s perspective of police brutality during protests against forced removals
I can’t breathe On these choking White streets of The United States of R a c i s m
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Jun 3, 2020
Jun 3, 2020 at 7:18 AM UTC
I can’t breathe
Why did you used violence When he doesn’t have weapons? Why did you used violence And left all his children Fatherless? I wonder what is with the brutality Choked a helpless man on the street He was willing to do your order, let go of your knee When he said he can’t breathe Why did you used violence Without any good reason? Why did you used violence When he was innocent? Why did you used violence Is it because he is a black person? Now it’s not your concern Because now he can breathe peacefully in heaven
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Jun 1, 2020
Jun 1, 2020 at 1:01 PM UTC
Breathe
are you tired yet? are you tired? do you hear the screams? do you hear the wails? the pain? are you tired yet? are you tired? do you smell the mass graves (you always smell them before you see them)? do you smell the ash? the rotting flesh? are you tired yet? are you tired? do you feel the dirt under your fingernails (it’ll never be washed clean)? do you feel the skin rubbed raw? do you feel the muscles so tense that tendons give way? your eyes are still open— do you feel the burn yet? are you tired yet? are you tired? do you taste the blood? do you taste the iron? the red clay coating your tongue? are you tired yet? are you tired? do you see the blood? the broken glass? the smoke? the fire? are you tired yet? are you tired? can you see it yet? can you see anything? are you tired? tape your eyes open. you are not allowed to look away.
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May 29, 2020
May 29, 2020 at 2:45 PM UTC
are you tired of being woke?
I love so hard it’s not always pretty so if you happen across me on a day like this just know your lil struggler loves you with all her heart. pain, I mean real pain spurs from loving devotion to God and all of the People on this Earth today’s challenges are necessary for tomorrow’s Revolts
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May 28, 2020
May 28, 2020 at 9:12 PM UTC
I can’t breathe.
It took years It took years for me to love the color of my skin To love the hair that grows out of my head It took years to stop wanting to bleach my skin To stop wanting to straighten my hair It took years To stop wanting to be anything but black To stop wishing that I was never born. But somehow, I still achieved it.   Even in the face of people that are hell-bent on hating us every single day. I should be doing homework but I can’t focus It seems like all this work will be for nothing anyway Like our deathbed is only a day away I should be studying for finals but I can’t absorb any information Instead, I am sitting by the door waiting for my dad to come downstairs Just so I can tell him goodbye and pray that he comes home I should be planning my future But instead, I can only focus on the next few hours Waiting and waiting and waiting For my dad AND mom to walk through that **** front door.   Hoping that my brother got home safe as well.   All because of the color of my skin.
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May 28, 2020
May 28, 2020 at 4:59 PM UTC
Color of my Skin
The melanin in our skin, leaves open a gateway for hate. It is where violence and bigotry breed at the hands of those meant to protect. Was our skin color God’s mistake? What is fed to us as seeds, grows into fires filled with rage as we mature. The cycle is inevitable, at best,   foreshadowing the entirety of our lives. Placing those sprouted through hate into an inescapable prison, filled with fires which cannot be extinguished. Warranting these fires to burn within us, was God’s only mistake. We will not be put out. I.M
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May 5, 2020
May 5, 2020 at 11:43 AM UTC
Girl on Fire
Corner stores and gas stations Parks and cars. We are in danger no matter where we are I hold my breath to not cause a fright Because if I do i might lose my life. “Stay still, show me your ID” “Please officer what do you need of me?” We hold our sisters hands But we can't promise a safe land. You're supposed to protects us So why cause such a fuss? You held us captive for years So why do we cause you such tears? Please officer don't shoot I was just playing with my friends No need to execute.
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Jun 12, 2019
Jun 12, 2019 at 4:02 PM UTC
we matter.
what is this place we call life where i'm always stereotyped is it my skin? is my blackness offensive? black bodies running for their lives trying to survive this genocide is it the way i dress? is it the way i talk? getting beat up on my own block getting shot five times with a glock i couldn't even say goodbye to my mama i couldn't even say goodbye to anyone so you tell me what is life?
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May 17, 2019
May 17, 2019 at 8:39 PM UTC
what is life?
I said, "How long will it take?" I mean, we've seen the same mistakes. Ain't it crazy after all this, we're still waiting for a change. And the faces are the same, the pain, it still remains. Tired of it all but really who is there to blame? The system, the victims, the money or fame? The power, the hour, the looks or the name? But whatever the claim, we need to make a change. We are here to stay so all my people, can I hear you say! No justice, No peace No murderous police! They say liberty for all, but freedom is not free. Its time to break down these walls of animosity. Its time to fight for our justice and equality. & we've seen it all before rooted deep within our history. Made some improvements but there is still no victory. Don't shoot, Hands up Unite and stand up Fight back and man up One more brother down We need back up! Its time for a change Real action, real pain! We might look different but were all the same. Man, this system is so distorted, to change that, i'm for it. No freedom till were equal **** right I support it.
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Nov 28, 2018
Nov 28, 2018 at 1:07 AM UTC
Freedom is Not Free
**** the Police Coming straight out the underground Young brother got it bad Cuz I look Mexican and I'm brown Can't forget to do diarrhea on the sheriff deputies Cuz you wear a uniform and a badge think you deserve respect like a G Biggest violaters of civil rights in the ******* land take advantage of everybody cuz you think we're stupid and you can Where are you going? What's your name? Are you on Probation? California is not a stop and identify state How about I cuff your *** Take you to an alley and let out all my frustration Am I under arrest? Or am I free to go is what I ask Boo bop & slit your throat come up from behind with a ******* Chucky mask I'm the worst ******* nightmare there ever has been A conscious, Chicano, 5 percenter Moorish American free national citizen How about next time you **** one of us We hunt you down, home invade your family and launch you all of a cliff in a bus. Quick to leave a pig bleeding left for dead in a ***** ditch ***** sewed to your mouth, you wanna be me punk *** ***** Or we'll cut your head off and stick it to a thousand foot pole start the vampire nation, count Vlad's idea yea I stole. 14th amendment, 85 percenter corporate security guard driving a big *** truck with your undersized ***** and you think your all hard, you ******* ****** You're obvious and pathetic I got no time to play We don't die we multiply and the movement is here to stay. Get off me stupid I ain't signing no autographs Che Guevara reincarnated now who has the last laugh?
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Sep 14, 2018
Sep 14, 2018 at 6:48 PM UTC
**** The Police
**** the Police Coming straight out the underground Young brother got it bad Cuz I look Mexican and I'm brown Can't forget to do diarrhea on the sheriff deputies Cuz you wear a uniform and a badge think you deserve respect like a G Biggest violaters of civil rights in the ******* land take advantage of everybody cuz you think we're stupid and you can Where are you going? What's your name? Are you on Probation? California is not a stop and identify state How about I cuff your *** Take you to an alley and let out all my frustration Am I under arrest? Or am I free to go is what I ask Boo bop & slit your throat come up from behind with a ******* Chucky mask I'm the worst ******* nightmare there ever has been A conscious, Chicano, 5 percenter Moorish American free national citizen How about next time you **** one of us We hunt you down, home invade your family and launch you all of a cliff in a bus. Quick to leave a pig bleeding left for dead in a ***** ditch ***** sewed to your mouth, you wanna be me punk *** ***** Or we'll cut your head off and stick it to a thousand foot pole start the vampire nation, count Vlad's idea yea I stole. 14th amendment, 85 percenter corporate security guard driving a big *** truck with your undersized ***** and you think your all hard, you ******* ****** You're obvious and pathetic I got no time to play We don't die we multiply and the movement is here to stay. Get off me stupid I ain't signing no autographs Che Guevara reincarnated now who has the last laugh?
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41
You are a guardian of the law Your duty is to keep crime at bay And bring the criminals to justice But, as I watch you, Wearing a khaki uniform And swinging your baton around As you go about on your daily rounds I am filled with such a rage That I hold my hand up in prayer And desperately wish that thoughts could **** Because you would then be dead Before anyone could even say "police" You are a guardian of the law Your duty is to keep crime at bay And bring the criminals to justice But instead, you abuse the immense power That you wield in your iron fist As people come out in hordes To protest on various issues You swing your baton around As wood clashes against flesh Democracy dies a thousand deaths However, your lust is unsatiated A pistol replaces the baton As it rains bullets Bundles of cash change hands As you quietly pocket them You yell to the world That justice has been served Even as the bodies pile up And Humanity waves a white flag As she bows to your iron fist
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Sep 7, 2018
Sep 7, 2018 at 10:21 AM UTC
You are a guardian of the law
9mm that’s the size of a bullet fired by police, It could be in self-defence, It wouldn’t matter. Cameras and press are pressed for time and need to get a front-page article out, “Chicago policeman shoots man” is what they go with Never mind that man killed three girls aged 10 – 12 but not before they were violently abducted. Police to avoid this happening to another child raided the house with the wallpaper faded. He shot at them first and when the policeman fired back he signed his resignation because no-one wanted to hear his apology in front of the whole nation. NRA and the 2nd amendment are giving everyone an easy excuse, It’s written into the constitution therefore it must be okay, But let me tell you something real quick: Slavery was legal Segregation was legal Does that make it okay? And here is where we sit right now on that fine line of it being moral and it being legal
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Jun 21, 2018
Jun 21, 2018 at 3:54 AM UTC
9mm Bullet
Blood means nothing Unless it's staining the streets Family has no merit When they don't even See me You want me to be passive? And let them spew racist hate? And all that "gendered" ******** You can't stop me, too late **** the systems that oppress us These prisons are stealing lives Locking up innocent people It's a form of modern genocide We are all human But our brothers are killed by police And our sisters killed for their gender identity But you'd rather look the other way And defend hateful "free speech" I am aware of my privilege And I will not stay silent You turn your eyes away from police brutality But try to preach anti-violence Our country is run by the white and the blue While the red is the blood of its people We need to look up at reality And stop focusing on the steeples Your hopes and your prayers Do not end the violence Instead they teach hate And oppressive silence
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Dec 30, 2017
Dec 30, 2017 at 7:15 AM UTC
Everything is Political
Dance in the flowers of springtime like a flower without petals. I have never heard of such. Never heard of a flower without petals, a lion without a roar, a tree without bark. These things are simply unheard of like sacred souls. They never see these things or the stitches on your heart holding you together, never heard of a heart that doesn't love. Never heard of a tiger without stripes and the pride of them , for what would we know if not these things? What about Maya Angelou who told us of the caged bird that sings or Langston Hughes who taught us to take our dreams, spread our wings and fly with them? A flame without heat is not so, it is ignited like the rage flowing through our veins when yet another African American boy is faced down, on the ground, unarmed, with blood of his own flowing out of him. Never heard of is it? Just like the streets that would scream if they could speak, so would Andy Lopez if wasn't already six feet under just for being 13. These are the things that are not unheard of, we just never hear them. I think maybe it is time these things be recognized and not cast aside, so that maybe their is hope for a bright future. That we might never have to see a world where flowers have no petals and lions no roar. But finally at peace with no war. Just love.
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Aug 4, 2017
Aug 4, 2017 at 11:12 PM UTC
Sight
Everyone always talks about it, marches blindly toward it with its hopeful and bright days but what does the future, the expected child of history, mean? Is it hidden in the next sentence? In the shadow of tomorrow? A year, two, three from now? And yeah, everyone always thinks about it, makes plans and to-do lists for it, waits for the ease to come, for the hardship to pass, for the bullets, like hummingbirds, to stop flying but when I get there, will I be safe? Will the sun rise for me? Will the crickets sing and stop as I pass them on the street? When I get there, will my wife be safe? Will the sun rise for her? Will the crickets sing and stop as she passes them on the street? When I get there, will our children be safe? With their fair skin and brown eyes? Or will the bullets, like hummingbirds, continue to fly? I can picture it now: driving home on the stretch of interstate between work and home on a Friday evening, content with the will of the week, eager to share what joys and concerns revealed themselves within the seconds of my day, the lake a floor of blue covered in diamonds bobbing in my peripheral, when over the radio a journalist reports another unarmed Black body was murdered by those trained to serve and protect the future.
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Sep 23, 2016
Sep 23, 2016 at 6:59 PM UTC
The Future