what happens when the lights go out

Photo from the Baltimore Uprising (photo credit unknown)

And now like Ferguson like New York like South Carolina

Baltimore has become some type of place

where some cops white or black or brown

male or female

masquerade as judge jury executioner

where we find ourselves with questions

and no answers

in mourning but without tears

in jungles concrete no glass

in prisons controlled guarded no bars

in hell our sins judged by sinners

dripping blood from their teeth

tearing our hearts straight out of our chest.

We must remember

that only the wicked see black skin as a sign of guilt

mistake loaded guns for tasers

running as an act of confession

wallets for loaded weapons

see toy guns as real

they never hear our shouts for help as real

they cant believe that we cant breathe

that we want to be free

that we want to grow up.

They cant accept that we belong here too

that it is our blood that runs thick with the same soil

that we use to grow our organic food

our pain being used to feed a nation again

our young brothers and sisters

now ageless and faceless

martyrs really

did not die did not pass away they are not lost

they were killed murdered shot choked

they are not lost

we know exactly where they are.

©Karsonya Wise Whitehead, RaceBrave, 2016