Absent Color, Punctual Hatred

We are many shades lighter But carry the most darkness Complicit in the genocide Of those who look different We stand and watch and justify For centuries, "It's just the way it is" From shackles and chains of slavery To the shackles and chains of prison But recently we are starting to find That some don't even make it there Paying with their lives With the dialing of three numbers They take up their posters like crosses They scream from the streets in protest Trying to break free from our grasp They can't breathe From loose cigarettes to signing checks Made to feel their existence is a threat Desperate to prove their innocence Without being given due process No day in court, just ashes and graves Lost fathers, brothers, and sons Measured like prey by blue snakes Squeezing until their last breath We defend the actions of murderers And give them another day in the light As we try to shake the blood from our hands Like we are not the guilty ones