I pledge my grievance to the flag of the Divided States of America
& To the ignorance for which it stands
One nation
Under wealth,
Divisible,
With liberty and justice for some.
Dear America, I think we should start seeing other people.
Dear America, I think you should start seeing other people within yourself.
Dear America, it’s not just me, it’s all of us.
It is the plaque on the bottom of the statue of liberty reading,
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
So we can choke them on camera and still get no indictment.
It is your purchase of body cams
when what you really need is empathy
but you can’t buy that shit on eBay.
It is your ability to breathe free
while suffocating others.
It is your full lungs.
It is their tired hearts.
It is your arrogant pride.
It is Gray’s broken spine.
It is their mourning mothers
It is
My inability to fit every victim of institutional inequality into this poem (because I only have 3 minutes to make my point).
and there will never be enough moments to lament
the lack of remorse we have for our wrongdoings.
You have bigoted beginnings
built brutally on the backs of those
Who look different than you
(Refusing to recognize that).
You, wide eyed- confused, mouthing,
Here you go, here’s “Black History Month”
Don’t say we never got you anything.
It is your incessant notion that you’ve gotten everyone something
Just ‘cause they were born here.
Our illiteracy of your own history
Is dumbfounding
(and I wish I was still surprised).
You say, “One nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
While you are “One nation under I’m not sure who the fuck would let us get to this point.”
‘Cause “liberty and justice for all”
Only works if you use the term “all” really liberally
& We’re not all thinking liberally.
Sometimes I don’t think we’re thinking at all.
So America, while I appreciate the opportunities you afford to some
I’m not blind enough to think that “some” here is the total.
‘Cause you talk a big game,
Freedom – Opportunity – Fame
but I’m worried about the unspoken,
the unheard,
and the unasked, “for who?”
Just as energy cannot be created or destroyed-
You aren’t profiting off of nothing.
You are profiting off of humans.
Like
You, the grade-school mother scared to let her son shake the hand of a cop.
You, everyone reading the news headline, “Tamir Rice’s mom still in shock” as if that’s supposed to be a story.
You, the forced migration of entire groups of people every time a new part of Philly is branded “up and coming”.
You, an entire community’s belief in a higher power because they haven’t felt like anyone in this world gives a shit about them.
You, a cruise ship of privilege speeding smoothly atop
Those underserved,
Under-resourced
Underpaid and over-worked
By you.
And I think it’s about damn time you see that.
& 