The Black Sheep of America

Sun, 04/30/2017 - 17:10 -- amurphy

 

Because life, being snatched from me in the country known for equality, is my American nightmare. 

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Then there is what some call the American dream, 

Loved, but it isn't all that it seems, 

Where we have progressed from a dark history, 

But hey, welcome to the home of the brave and the land of the free. 

 

Where we are misfits, 

Statistics, 

Supposedly presented with justice and liberty, 

Our souls still shackled in the chains claimed to be taken after the abolishment of slavery. 

 

Where we were considered three-fifths, not a even a full human being, 

As Dr. King once cried out, "Let freedom ring", 

Looking back at King's speech, 100 years, 100 years, 100 years, 

No, no I take that back for I'm still living with the old troubles and tears.

 

The concept of a document proclaiming us free in 1863 and for some more, 

The shackles digging deeper and deeper even with the years counting to only 154, 

This not at all was King's dream, 

We are dying and expiring because our complexion does not favor that of cream. 

 

The names of our lost becoming echoes in the wind, 

Souls growing heavier with the pain and hoped dimmed. 

Tombstones etching names upon their face, 

As more and more wither away from the black race. 

 

We see that our melanin and complexion, 

Falters us in a spiraling down direction, 

If no one else will do something about it, then we have to take a stand, 

We are not saying other lives do not also matter, but have to do something because the issue is getting out of hand. 

 

You can plug your ears, 

And pretend that you can't see, 

But that will not erase, 

That will not reverse, 

That will not change what is going on in society. 

 

Why can't society understand the uproar and clatter? 

Why are some so sheltered to comprehend that black lives matter? 

What's it really going to take for someone to realize that we matter too? 

What's going to happen next, will a life have to be taken from me or you?

 

This poem is about: 
Me
My family
My community
My country
Our world
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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