Black Man Arise by Kendi Karimi 💫 #BraveWords #StarfishClub #PoetryHub #Poetry #PoetryCommunity #Writing #WritingCommunity #Itsoknottobeok #Coffeeandachat @coffeeandachat1

You don’t trust in nor believe us
But when you see bad you see us
You kill us you bleed us
That badge you wear defies the hearts you tear
It reflects the unfairness of a justice system meant to be fair
Of blood too red to paint
Of the taint of innocent lives
Lost through your ignorant eyes
Of a system defended by lies
One that was made to legally watch black people die
And maintain the black man in his suit and tie
Under the thumb of the white supremacists lies

Black people arise because we are worth more than a fight
Because we have fought and surrendered and still died
But burning bright is the hope we hold tight
That one day we will lift the shades off the blinds
And color will not be the eyes through which we see
That every man black or white should live his life free
Free of fear of incarceration for walking down a street
Free of the fear of death that feeds on anger and hate
Free of the fear of a man in uniform
Club, gun or none by his waist
You and your badge are the example of why we should reform
Because society as we know it is going to waste
Leaving empty shells as walking bodies in its wake
Taking, taking, taking, but we cannot make the same mistakes
We cannot die again for the same reasons our ancestors died
We cannot cry again over the same reason they shed their tears
There is a line between interrogation and harassment
And you crossed it right over to murder in public
Justice is too bitter a drink for your protected self to sip
And we don’t ask that you choke on it,
We just ask that you take that sip and keep on sipping
Racism and police brutality won’t go away in a week or a year
But we can start by eradicating the fear in our children’s eyes
Because growing up in 2020, you can’t afford to blind yours with pretty lies
Evil does not have to lie in your head or heart
Restructurize establishments on new rules that don’t divide
On new rules that don’t tear a poor man’s pocket apart
I have seen the bad as much as the good
Dear Lord, all we want is to be understood
When we react don’t call it overreacting
Firing a gun at an unarmed man, that’s overreacting

Our government goes to bed with the oppressors for a little bit of pocket change
And now motherland Africa, God’s gem, is a dumping ground for waste,
Is a land for experiments on the black man and plastic dumps on his land
Which your vanilla fingers feel entitled to grab so you bid to outbid the highest bidder,
You came, you saw, you conquered all, now we’re taking it all back
Blasting cracks in your blackproof windows because we’re smart not whack
Because our eyes have adjusted to seeing in the dark 
And without a doubt, black don’t crack, black fight back,

Black man arise and walk not with fear in your eyes
You will survive this colorism plague
You will survive the bullets made
Arise black man, you will survive!
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