YABSIRA

TELL A BLACK BOY YOU LOVE HIM TODAY.

YABSIRA

Colin Kap took a knee to protest police
He was pro peace
Yet America played politics
Played patriotic protector of flags
Played pro blues and never blacks
Pulled power strings and pushed him out of the football fields⠀

They protect everything
Just not black boys
they push black bodies into coffins
And we have been coughing blood way before COVID⠀
⠀
We been coughing since cotton fields
Since black men became 3/5ths
Since false convictions
Since Eric Gariefied couldn't breathe
Since cover ups for cops while we count our loss
Covering up black corpses with accusations of causing a privilege man inconvenience⠀

There's a privileged population
Protesting for hair cuts
Privileged enough not protest cops
Not to protest, the cutting of a black man's existence⠀

This is America, where black lives are cheap
Like loose change
Like consumer commodity, dispensable and disposable at their own convenience
Our funerals are customer service to a country that never gave black men peace
So when a black man dies, he truly Rests in Peace⠀

And we
Cry on every grave
Pray for every name
We pray more every day
Knowing black skin ain't bullet proof when preyed upon by black boy hunters
Like beasts
like black boys don't have brothers
Like black men have no kids
Like no one would be bothered about their killings
Like black men would have no business being alive
They'll kill them, even on Facebook Live
They play God
They play God, giver and taker of life⠀

So the next time you see a black boy back home safe
Tell him you love him
Tell him that you see him
That you hear him
That you are there and you care
And even, when they cut off his life
𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗦E
That you will keep his name alive

• POEM 𝘉𝘠 𝘠𝘈𝘉𝘚𝘐𝘙A