Oh say! Can you see by the dawn’s early night

He takes a sharp breath

And cries out

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;

He is sixteen and by his family’s eyes

A child, but by

Society's eyes he is too old

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,

Tears run down his face like a river

And he thinks only of his mama

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

He tries one last time

To prove that the only crime

He has committed

Is to live

“Don’t shoot”

And the rocket's red glare,

BAM!

the bombs bursting in air,

All is silent now,

As he slumps to the ground

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:

On the news the next morning

They call him an adult

And a thug

And dangerous

Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave

His killer goes free

And there are riots for a week

But they calm down

They forget

Because to only a few

Does his life,

Do Black lives matter

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.