“They is white/we is black” by
Amiah Taylor
A girl from the hood where we live at... (though headline says 14 year old woman)
Long gold braided hoops
Hanging from her ears
Sand Dune skin, sundae eyes
Police altercation whiplashed her dead.
Stray bullet. Though, the black boy they were
shooting at. they meant to kill him.
Metallic hair barrettes
Shining like the dew drops on a noose
Tightening around a neck
Long deflated
long evacuated by any soul
that deserved justice and
has to soldier back; dredge back into the eggy yolky water
and melt into cervical fluid that makes graveyard flowers grow.
Twitter headline. Newspaper story.
New Icon for the violence done to black children.
They is completely submerged in their noiseless bubble.
But we got sharp words too.
Whittled our headlines into shivs. Carved our statistics into pocket knives
And we are lashing out. And we are lashing out. And we are lashing out.