Why did we quit after MLK had a dream?
X said a new world order was in the making.
Why did we stop fighting for our rightful place in it?

57 years ago, we won the Rights
That allowed me to marry my wife-
Why are we still seeing immoral incivility
Through the lens of thousand-dollar cell phone cameras?

57 years ago, we couldn’t have captured injustice-
No lens, no proof, no hope of justice.
But 57 years ago, we fought for civility and won.

But we quit.
We thought we were done.
We became complacent in our victory.
It was just a battle.
The war is yet to be won.

I sit and watch my children laugh and smile,
Blessed with much more than I ever dreamed to have.
Then I look at the news-
And I cry inside.

I look at my wife,
The love of my life,
And I want to ask her-

Why are you so different from them?
Why can you see the good in me?
And not just the color of my skin?

She would say,
“Did God see color, or did He see His children calling to Him?”

God did not quit when His children cried.
Then why did we-after one battle, one prize?

I gave you truth-
You sent me silence.
I gave you peace-
You returned it with violence.

I shot my heart to you.
You-Neo, Matrix-
Bent over backwards
Just so you wouldn’t claim it.

I gave you secrets,
You were the pages in my diary,
Like keys played by all -
You gave everyone my diary.

I’m war-torn, scarred.
No peace where I lay my head.
My heart-Boomerang-
Like Eddie Murphy said.

A tragedy in these words,
My love shut behind a closed door.
Echoes of smiles, of laughter-
My heart, a chalk line on the floor.

“It is what it is,” they say.
“Leave. Let love go.”
But my foundation is cracked,
And love still seeps through the wounds.

It will not go.