Hashtag, “Black lives matter.”

Trending, but then what?

Hashtag, “All lives matter.”

Seems pretty okay, but…

I find it quite ironic

That this only came about

To counter what’s been said before,

A hand over a mouth.

If all lives really mattered,

And, of course, it’s true,

Would this slogan really be a necessary thing to do?

But instead blind eyes are turned

To black children shot in parks

And you cross the street, avoiding

“Sketchy, tall, and dark.”

You say nothing when you see

Black victims of gentrification

Left in poor, run-down housing districts

For many generations.

You say education is the key

But turn silent (also deaf)

And deny  inner city schools resources

When they’re in distress.

So thus when Black Lives Matter

Becomes a rallying cry

I guess it’s only natural

To distract the public from your lies.

You demonize the protesters,

So that they are only “thugs”

Who loot and burn and steal

And are drunk and high on drugs.

And even when the protests

Are peaceful, it won’t matter.

You’ reduce all that they have to say

To merely “media chatter.”

So no, I don’t believe it

When you say those three words

Because when you try to explain

It’s all nonsense that I’ve heard.

I’ll start saying “All lives matter,”

When you know the way it feels

To be the mother of a black child

Who was unjustly killed.

I’ll take it even further,

Your slogan’s aim I’ll truly see

When you take the hand of a suffering

Syrian refugee.

I’ll believe you when I can’t remember

When my 3rd grade classmate cried

Because of immigration,

His father on the other side.

So it’s not right to protest?

On that, I’ll disagree,

When you yourselves will start a war

When an athlete takes a knee.