The News
[Music]
it is obscene
the way white fragility plagues black
people to death
we die black in custody black
in the er black in the or black in
labor black driving black jogging
black with a degree black in a hoodie
black in a suit black at the wrong
door black at the wrong party black at
the wrong
school black with no bail black with no
witnesses
black and autistic black with covid
black and gay black and trans
black with heads bowed in prayer to a
god who can’t click
over ironic a triune without three-way
dyed black and pretty
black and too smart for our own good
equal smarter than you
dyed black with our hands up
backs turned on our feet on our knees
with your knees
on our necks begging to breathe dyed
black
and sleeping in her bed
be grateful you aren’t
burning yet all my poems
are about this fire every five o’clock
hour we are bathed in the blood of
innocents
every network needs its pound of flesh
i’ve stopped watching the news
turned off the tv shield our eyes from
the pain
we skim the morning papers my daughters
are old enough to read between the lines
they are
armed with dangerous questions
where was the last one will the next one
be
closer will you die will i die
are we safe i want to tell them
that children don’t die villains do not
harm the innocent you
are the innocent no one dies in cartoons
our life is a cartoon
guns pointed at babies shoot confetti
and flags to say bang no bullets
no wounds no perpetually rocking
empty arms no fractured fathers riddled
with grief
i want to tell them that we live happily
ever after
death has no sting the end will never
come for us
tomorrow is promised we always
live to fight another day we
are invincible
but i can’t so i tell them
we are phoenix
rise from ashes middle passage nat
turner
kill mass of free huey black panther
proud
lineage of black wall street idol
priestess
born of choctaw warrior we
cut heads
you are because i am and i am
because they were the stuff of legend
our ancestors built this civilization
do not fear it mother does not fear
child
i gave birth to you can take you out if
i have to
we gave birth to this world can take it
out
if we have to rest easy
daughters if they come for us
your mama is always
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ready