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

//