A reminder for when we think all lives matter, it does, but not all lives are getting murdered in plain view. Right now it is about Black Lives Matter.
Black, was originally written in 2019, when we thought we could talk openly about the incredible horrors committed on people of colour, when my heart was breaking and I thought it could not get worse.
I believe we, as a society, bury our heads in the sand, it took a man getting murdered right before our very eyes for this to happen #BlackLivesMatter #EqualRightsForBlackPeople.
I am so inspired by the protest happening worldwide where everyone who participate have one belief #blacklivesmatter
BLACK
Inside the prison of my skin
I walk afraid to make contact
Like a trapped animal I skitter against concrete walls, trying to claw my way into its depths
A convenience store is a suicide chamber
To the world I have no mother, sister, brother
I am just a black man dropped like rotten fruit into the quagmire you called America
If I don’t sink into oblivion, be assured a “blessed one” will go out of their way to step on me, bury me, suffocate me, blow me away
Driving a car is like sitting in a grenade waiting for a white cop to pull the plug
I am not a man, I am a threat, something akin to the plaque I must be eradicated less I be contaminated
Imagine for a moment what it would be like to live in my skin…
Take your worst nightmare being chased by a city of zombies
Eaten alive as you live
Throw in that dream of you naked in public
Filled with shame and helplessness
Think of the act of taunting an ass, toiling and starving as that carrot is held just out of reach
Think, of what despair feels like
Think, of undeviating denial
Think, of failed dreams
Think, of lack of opportunities
Think of the apocalypse
From the day I was born to the day I died I only knew my skin was a desolate place…
…known as the black man’s prison
Samantha McLeod