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Jeremy Betts Jan 2021
The only role I ever land is "outcast tortured by the cruelty and pain of his past" I sure didn't choose this path, feels more as though I've been typecast, or maybe I am a *******, holding out for every last ounce of pain before I blast this trader living in my head for the last 30 years off my shoulders, through a window pane, then, just as fast, turn to the vast hole in my chest that once held my heart and press the cold steel to it with the mass of my dread firmly in my grasp, gun fire drowned out by echoing laughs, fulfilling a prophecy of my future while neglecting lessons from my past, the game of life feels less like a game of chance and more like a test that's harder to advance than all the rest and wouldn't you know it, I fell asleep in class and didn't pass, apparently I even tuned out the emergency broadcast. Went and amassed a losing record that'd be impressive if not for the direct contrast the win column presents and the enormous shadow my downfall casts. Harassed by the devil on each shoulder, I thought that maybe once I got older, if I could just stay on task and remain steadfast, I would be able to open a can of whoop a$$ and trespass the evil within this house of glass but alas I must telegraph my every move or they've seen a future telecast because they lambast each strike and I'm not sure I'll outlast these issues, I'm gassed, plus, problems have started showing up in mass from a much higher weight class, they must have bypassed the weigh in process but I've always known who the deck was stacked against, hence why I never win, I only survive and my methods would flabbergast most, the truth finds it's way to the surface and I find myself aghast, crying like I've been teargassed with no gas mask but I've surpassed the point where waterworks will bring forth empathy, gotta own my involvement in the crash, volunteer to take out my own trash and this time I'll throw my pain out with the bath water and be free at last...free at last, free at last, no thanks to god almighty I'll be free at last

©2021
douglas chesa Feb 2012
How do you want me
MR GOVERNMENT?
Roasted, grilled or stewed
With mustard, salt and pepper
to taste...
How do you want me?
Plain or with some dressing
May be drowned in sauce
May be downed with red wine
Just smack your lips
You are going to meat me there.

What wrong have I done this time?
Being a Squatter, Vagrant, Streetkid!
A beggar in the land of plenty
Yes, we have plenty misery
Suffering there...

The guns bark their chorus
And muffle the wail of the hungry and weak
As the law pins me against the wall...
Law the watchdog for the powerful
That chants its mumbo-jumbo
Against the poor...
I hear the loud voice of the gun
You are going to meat me there...

There, I am wanted
For tax evasion when I am not employed
For asking the meagre returns
Of my sweat and blood
For demanding back my poetry
They stole from the archives of my heart...
Yesterday I was arrested
For riding my master's mistress in a dream
Today I am dragged before a Judge of Law
For being found with maliciously true poetry
In my heart...
Tomorrow they will charge me
For singing a song
They will claim to have composed long ago
In their hearts...
I stand accused.

You turn me into a bull's eye
For your mahobhos
I am booted and teargassed
I have my back stuck to the wall
And the fingers curl on the triggers...
Too, too many fingers employed for the trigger
For sure they want to meat me
....there!

-dougwa-
Hannah Nett May 2020
White privilege
Though we condemn it
And act resistant
It continues to plague us
And test what we are made of
It is showcased in every look as we pass by
We never have to go for a run with people having questions in their eyes
Thinking we must be leaving the scene of a crime
We never have to worry about getting pulled over because we were slightly speeding
And being unnecessarily restrained while cops search the car for dope
Gunned in broad daylight because we were wearing a suspicious looking hoodie with pockets that made us look like we were reaching for a gun
Or live with the fear that someone might come by in the night
And arrest us for a crime we never committed
Or worse shoots us through the door more than 20 times
Gunning us down in the middle of the night
In our homes
In a raid gone wrong
Or when we are strong-armed by cops who insist
They are on the side of the law
we never have to worry about a brawl
or being teargassed in the mall
or made to fall on the ground
and being further restrained
to the point where we can’t even breathe
and die a death of agony
even when we say please
Our world today is ******* up
And torn affray
By racism that has never really gone away
Because hatred and fear
Lead the way
Instead of humanity
And equality
And human rights
That are not represented by the cops, courts, and government leaders
Who like to preach these things our way
We are also accomplices to this
We like to scream injustice and flash the cameras
And act like we have always stood on justices’ side
When these horrendous acts take place
But that is not enough
We have to make it an everyday case
This can’t be the new normal
This is not okay
Racism is not here to stay
We must be vocal, resistant, and fight injustice
In the everyday
And not act as bystanders or co-creators of hate
So the Breonna Taylor’s, Ahmaud Arbery’s, and George Floyd’s
Of this world might just be saved
Instead of casualties of this inherent hate
America continues to propagate

— The End —