there comes a time when

people you once respected

reveal

or you discover

the real

person behind the mask

__

face facts

people who never wanted you

to do better

than them

are now wishing

that you would 

shut your mouth

stop your tweeting

delete your facebook

get out of the streets

why are you 

so loud

__

like the screams of 

the black child

whose father is dead

whose mother is grieving

whose siblings are 

also fatherless

__

it’s like the system was built

to destroy us

which of my brothers were around

when the constitution

was drafted

yet

we were drafted

to fight your wars

to fill your prisons

to be treated

like 3/5 of a man

because of our skin

__

now do you see? 

can you lift your blinders now?

can you stop thinking all lives matter

now?

__

b l a c k l i v e s m a t t e r

they mattered

when

white men kidnapped us

from the mother land

and when white men 

raped slaves who gave birth

to bastard babies

who grew to be house slaves

because their skin was lighter

but still 

they were slaves 

beaten, abused

ripped apart from

their families

undocumented

burials and sinkings of

black bodies

in deep waters

__

now 

generations later

the mystery men

who were buried in mass graves

with no tombstone

have descendants who do not know

their great great great great great

grandfather was beaten 

and disposed of

like litter washing up 

on the shore

and here we are 

over four centuries later

the year was 1619

the year is 2020

__

black lives mattered

when jim crow

was written 

and Emmett Till 

was lynched by two white men

because a white woman

lied

testified under oath

and lied

so a black boy died

at 14 years old

and the world saw

his swollen 

mutilated body 

from the 

beating

torture

shooting

and disposal

of his black body

in a river

his unrecognizable face 

on covers of papers

and magazines 

everywhere

but the verdict was

not guilty

and here we are 

nearly seven decades later

the year was 1955

the year is 2020

__

black lives mattered

when Rodney King

was tasered and beaten

by five white officers

who did not know 

they were being recorded 

beat the man 

until he was black

and blue

they were acquitted

by the way

__

remember the LA riots?

when people took to the streets 

not because 

they were animals but

because they were tired

and the whole world 

could see why

on the news

in the media

in their neighborhoods

at their cornerstores

at their shopping centers

on the streets

but here we are

nearly three decades later

the year was 1991

the year is 2020

and Black lives still matter