I am the shadow of trayvon martin
Lying on the ground just as he did
I'm black just as he was
I wasn't planning to die that day either
I wasn't threatning nobody either
that day
The gunshots echoed
just as loud
when I was shot down as Mike Brown
yet his name echoes through the streets years later still
mine followed me to the grave
They don't care about me it seems
If I cried "what about me"
Who would ever see?
because my hashtag has even been drowned so deep in the depths of R.I.P's that I can't barely breathe anymore
When we think black brutality
Why do the names of trayvon
Mike
Tamir
Sandra
Rush to our heads just as fast as blood once rushed to theirs?
Does my black life, too, matter?
I can't blame you
That there have been so many deaths due to oppression and police brutality that they all seem to sound the same
No matter how loud we scream Black lives matter
We will never be seen as the living
But the potentially dead
We cry for justice to a system that's no longer built to accept us
A president that tries to forget us
A black voice will always be too loud to a world who never intended on listening
Who am I?
Besides a hashtag and a t-shirt with my face on it?
A black lives matter sign and a melanin fist?
A statistic?
I am black excellence
Regardless of how much sin you may see in my kin

There is nothing left to write
Nothing left to say
Nothing left to hear that we haven't already heard
Every word propagandized

We know
As well as they know
that black boys deserve to grow up too
that a black girls life is precious too
with natural hair and melanin glow
beauty able to stop a show..
that the sound of gunshots and police sirens aren't so cool anymore
that we're not proud to wear red, white, and blue anymore
because the only times they ever give us credit for displaying the colors of patriotism is when they show another one of us dead or in handcuffs with police lights painted on our skin
They insult our pride and attack our good virtue..
since when has dark skin resembled a shot target?
I'm a human being, not the brute you define me as
I'm tired of being caged behind crime scene tape and metal bars..

that police aren't our friends anymore
that money is not just nothing but a thang 'round here
Because they put us in prisons to feel a little richer
A black life is priceless but nobody knows because we're still being sold to put on a show
That we're unheard
Nobody seems to care about us anymore
Tell us again that we ain't ever gonna fly
As our wings dangle from your fingers
That we're living in a world that serves the opposite
of justice and liberty for all

often tough times taught us to write.






© pax

I want to know you more than you know yourself
For every ego shines through impurities
If you're broke, you flaunt cash
If you're ugly in the face, you flaunt your body
If your sad, you smile and say it's okay
If you're a punk, you flaunt weapons
For your ego says a lot about you
Maybe I already know you more than you know yourself
Without even knowing