black.

the destruction of black bodies 

and black voices unsettle me.

it’s a trauma i don’t want pocketed 

near things of gold and honey. 

i absorb the agony of my people anyway.

we are silenced 

with batons and beatings, 

with tasers and tear gas, 

with countdowns to curfew. 

we are beautiful but brutally

battered because of the

coils in our hair, 

the twinkle in our skin,

the might in our voice, 

the dignity in our eyes. 

they want to strip our being to dust,

but our lives are coated in 

dynasty and grace, too. 

we refuse to suppress 

our chants for their comfort

because we will not be complicit 

in our oppression. 

we deserve to breathe,

to stand in freedom’s arms.