Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Warm Welcoming Fire: For America

I cannot write
another name / his body sunken
I cannot stand
the weight, another brown boy is
hanging / I cannot breathe
this generation’s inheritance
the choking stench of violence persists
this accumulated death of the innocent

so instead I watch as we take
up
the pens and signs
throw our hands
up
the voices
and prayer
up
we open
our palms crying
please
don’t shoot

//

count the syllables and cities who home the buried
who mourn the dead and dying
Whose breath is held
Still waiting
for justice

Count the times
We have watched the master’s call for massacre
Held our young and brown closer
Shielding our children from this wildfire
Of slaughter turned acquittal

Remember the young men
Remember America’s promise
Kept secret from their opened hands

Today we light this foundation
that allows for the protection of the killing
and the dishonor of the dying
we burn with the skin and bones of our children
black
dead
but not forgotten
begging

//

what will change this country
if not a young man
shot porous
his open palms’
broken promise
his burial’s
warm welcoming fire


//