Necessity
Some may fear the damage
Of a shattered window and a burning car
But glass is not flesh
And cars are not people
My life is not property
I will not be bought nor sold
Nor traded for another
I will not be put on a shelf to gather dust
You cannot rent me for a day
To show off to your so-called friends
And return me to another hand
That feeds me the same saccharine lies
And when I am cut, I will bleed
And my blood will stain your guilty hands
To mark you as the one who stands
Above all else, above all those
Who suffer, begging at your feet
“Beg for scraps, or you will starve”
Is the message in your glare
When you look down upon us
Like we are less than the air
We dare to breathe
For the land of the free and the home of the brave
Is the dwelling of greed and the blindly enslaved
And we have many sins to bear
Despite all the lies we weave
Until we resist together,
There is no escape from this web of deceit
Blood was not meant to be shed
We were not born to suffer
So why is it necessary
That we ignore those who bleed?
The memory of loss cannot be erased
It may be stifled, but never forgotten
But grief is for another time
Today, we go to war
Our hands are not tied, as some claim;
With clenched fists held high, we will rise
We will rise for the sake of the future
We will rise in
the name of the past
Some may fear the sound
Of a crowd in protest or a siren’s call
But we are together
And they will not silence us