The black names drip from our obituaries, sticky and thin.
You would think they would burn into our minds,
the brand of injustice against bound skin—
But a headstone is lost in unending lines.

It is horrifying.

Despicable.

How do we allow one man to **** another in cold blood?
Life spilled pours out in floods
Our men in blue drenched red
With the staggering numbers dead
And we sit back with “not all cops are the same”

Not every officer’s a killer but do you remember the names
Treyvon and Michael and Eric and Dontre and John and Ezell and Dante and Tanisha and Akai and poor little Tamir, who was still a kid,

Tell me what he did?

There is systematic opression and agression against a group skin defined
Where ****** is fine, it happens all the time, killers let off the line
Because of an oath that should bind
The oath they forget, the promise to protect, held up for all citizens except
The ones they choose to neglect

The badge not a shield but a riot ram
Against those that take a stand
And raise defiant hands
For the names lost in the clatter,

Black Lives Matter.

In the Charleston marketplace, a boutique auctions off
detailed limited edition replicas of black history: a slave
who hugs his chains upright over his porcelain hands,
is sold for $1200.00 to a man with a black Amex card,
a horde listening to the Emancipation Proclamation
goes for the same amount, Malcolm X gets $1000.00,
MLK just a little less, the OJ bobble heads sell for $60.00  
in the store’s gift shop while the white Bronco in
slow pursuit complete with flashing police lights
and breathless live commentary garners $2400.00,
Rosa Parks languishes at the rear eventually getting $300.00,
Eric Garner, Treyvon Martin, Rodney King are
part of lot sold for $500.00 clearance and a free
Black Lives Matter T-shirt, George Floyd gasping out
“I can’t breathe,” enshrined in a porcelain halo nabs
the same price, while the last figurine, of his murderer
being embraced by a very happy Donald Trump is
purchased by a man in a MAGA hat for $10,000.00.

Verdict is in, all 7 are pardoned from sin. The streets are safe again from the menace that creeps. One less life to take, add to the collection that have suffered the same fate. Freezing in the damp winter night. Mentally unfit to be allowed a plea. We don't care if you are cold, a bound and naked man is alot to fear. How long to find a blanket or a coat? How long before he found a knee upon his throat? When Chuck made the claim I could never believe. 911 is a joke, just check the footage and see. Rochester oh how you have made the scene! From Treyvon to Daniel and every name not yet released.

What If
Keyairra Branaugh


What if I hit The uno reverse card, made your world hard. Turning the black oppression into white oppression makes you angry, gives you aggression, people **** over a **** election but that's just Uncle Sam coming back from his resurrection ,don't be mad at me I'm just trying to give you some self reflection.
What if I said we the people but you and I were never equal, you were just an animal my ancestors used to build their steeple.
What if I hit The uno reverse card and made your world hard , people think you're a criminal because your melanin isn't kept to a minimum. You can never wipe off the brown from your face so it makes you catch a case. That's how it feels on my side when you decide to discriminate.
What if I hit the uno reverse card that made you world hard and made you go out in the streets to protest your beliefs only to get stopped by the police, they hit you with rubber bullets that made you want to die make you want to cry , make you want to commit suicide. I think this white supremacy is getting to me sometimes , somedays I dont know rather to run or hide sometimes I feel so small inside. So what if I hit the uno reverse card made your world hard . what would it change ? Nothing, all we do is loose names Treyvon Breonna George and I can´t afford to lose any more,but what if you knew, would you still **** us out in the streets, would you still want us to get stopped by the cops. So what if?