Hunters will set up blinds

 In woods

 So the prey

Being hunted

Will get use to what seems foreign.

 I wonder

If they know their getting use to

Their killer

 

We are accustomed

As ammo aimed

 At angels

 Assimilating

 All around

 Us

 

Cops

 Will patrol cities

 So the civilians

 Feel safe

 Within the community,

 Although the ones

 Protecting you,

 Look nothing like you,

 I wonder

If they know their getting use to

Their killer

 

Born beautiful,

Blackness battles back

 Bad behavior,

 But bloody background

Bottles black bodies

 Because bullets blast

 Brothers being broken

 By beast bearing blue

 

That’s a lot of B’s

 But bear with me

 

If life is a game,

 And we are its game

 Then who the hell

 Are the hunters?

 The ones with guns,

And a disguise

That pledges

Red,

 White,

 And blue

 Wanting to see us bleed red

 Our shooter white,

 And our hands go blue

 

African Americans

 Assaulted

 Altered

As animals

 

Black boys,

Bruised, by

 Brutality

 And I know

 I said I would stop with the damn B’s

 But after B comes C

 Like

 I C coffins

 Carrying colored

 Carcasses

 Before bodies

 Are in them

 

I guess,

 Killing blacks are as

Easy as

 A

 B

 C

 See like

 Dark fruit is nice

But police

Would rather see the juice

Spilling from your veins

 

It makes me realize,

 That I don’t want to be

 Good at math

 I don’t want to be good

 At making a statistic

 

But what

 Else can

We expect

When the city

 Is an equation

 And we

Are the problem

They are desperately

Trying to solve

 

While their son’s backs

 Meet beds

 In the middle of the night

 My brother’s backs

 Meet

Pavement

So don’t ask me

 How’s it feel to paint the town red

 Cause I know souls

 That can tell you

 

You dream of Freddy

 Or Jason chasing you

 

I dream of running

From cops

 To stay alive

 

The only difference

Is that

 When I wake up

Those dreams

Still follow

Me

 

Down dark streets,

 Into gated communities,

 And even to my own front porch

 

PETA loves protecting endangered animals

So when will

 Someone protect

Endangered

Black children

 

When will

I

Be given

My rights

 

Instead of having

 Them read to me

 

Instead of tattooing pieces

 Of paper

 To write poems

 About problems

You know exist

 

We use ink

 To draw

 Legislation

Because you can find peace in heart

 By making pieces of art

 

The word unity

Has been replaced by prison

 So the community

Has no value

 Just common

 Traits of jails

 

And no

 I have never been there

 Nor has Eric Garner,

 Or Michael Brown

 Or Jonathan Garret

 Names,

 Lost in translation

 Because police

Don’t speak

 English

 When we say innocent

 With hands pointed towards the sky

Like we want God to take us

 Before the bullet does

 

But it’s bigger than that,

 Bigger than a few names.

 We make profit off these prophecies

 Like we did with Trayvon

When will we be with the movement

 And not the moment

 

Like when I leave my house,

 It’s like I’m going to another cell block,

 Constantly being watched

 When did looking like a criminal

 And being one

 Become the exact same thing

 

Cause if I stray too far

From my boundaries

You’ll find-these

 Eyes

Closed

 In a casket

 

I don’t know when I will die

 But Take a picture

 It’ll last longer than

The life expectancy

 Of black children

 In the city

 

So when you hold the barrel

 Of your lens at their face

 Like the crater

You are aiming at can

Swallow bullets just like

 It swallows

Air

Ever second sirens

 Blare

 Just remind them

 To smile

 

Cause if they gunned me down,

What picture would they use,

To remember me?