Black Lives.

Six degrees of separation
That’s where we are
That’s where I stand, Black
In this American land
There’s no curse stronger than in a place
Covered in blood
How much longer will we bleed?
One hundred and fifty years past
My ancestors were professed free
Yet the essence of their spirit comes out of my own throat
Six degrees
I can’t breathe and I can’t see and I can’t be
Compliant, anymore.
Because we had to demand equality
Because we have to keep demanding equality
Not a hand out or a leg up or even a damn sorry
Just that the same justices afforded all
Be afforded to US
We the people, who had to sit at the back of the bus
Shackled to those ships, flesh burned and branded, cotton picked
The collar had been fit, to Jim Crow and segregation
Six degrees of separation
Between the hues of our flesh
All of which the uniforms in blue are sworn to protect
And yet, my so-called free brothers and sisters are dead
Bullets to their chest with a gun
At the hands of a promise to serve
And yet cold are the eyes of the oppressor
Whose predecessors they will boast to our redemption
But what have they really saved us from?
Or have they just changed the condition of our chains?
Because it’s clear that for too many, they never came off
The steel rustling haunts us as we live and die
Together, my brothers and sisters, of this black life