Can we Live?

I vividly remember that day.

It was a bright sunny day

The kind of day you’d draw in kindergarten

With the sun shining brightly in the corner

Yes Indeed it was that kind of day

Lips muttered these words

“Who is Eric Garner and why should I care”

Those words erased the rays of sunshine

I once drew in kindergarten

Rayless sunshine

Yes Indeed it was that kind of day

It dawned on me that

No it rained on me that

I am frustrated

Simply frustrated

I watch the news and I hear about

Lives taken left and right

And I think to myself

Wow I really wanna get off this flight

Repeatedly I say, This is not what Martin Luther King died for

This is not what the civil rights leaders fought for

This is not what I wanna live for

You see it’s so easy to feel safe

It’s so easy to feel secure

When it’s not your life at death’s door

See it’s so easy for us to use #BLACKLIVESMATTER

It’s so easy for us to become part of the online chatter

But when push comes to shove

Why do so many of us scatter?

You see, I’m here today to speak to black youth

You see, I’m here today to speak to myself

It’s time we stopped running from the truth

It’s so easy for us to shout from the rooftops

Black Lives matter

But we need to know that Black Voice Matters too

We need to understand that it can’t be subdued

We need to understand what’s going on

A new type of understanding must be born

We need to stand firm. No we must not and we cannot run

We need to project our voice for the voiceless

Move our feet for the legless

Pour out our hearts for the heartless

Because

Current events are current

They are happening here

They are happening now

And they affect us how?

America

Land of the free. Home of the brave

This is the place where we were self made

But why are we always getting self-played

We can’t remain afraid  

The sooner we think of ourselves as the future

The sooner we can lay down the right structures

The sooner we stop being preoccupied

With lightskin vs darkskin

The sooner our the plight of our voice can begin

We can’t say I live in Gainesville so Baltimore doesn’t affect me

We can’t say why should I care? I’m not a member of the Trayvon martin family

We can’t say why should I know about the Eric Garner calamity

For Gainesville, For Baltimore, for Ferguson

This is our country

We can’t say We can’t.

Black youth.

We need to rally around each other

We need to be a beacon of light for one another

We need to have peace on our mind

To have peace of mind

So what’s stopping us?

I think we need to understand that

We’ve got the power of the past right behind us

We’ve got the inspiration of the future there to guide us

We have to let people know that boxes will not define us

Stereotypical black youth? No, that’s not us

We are scholars, educators, and everything God made us

I believe we are not too young to realize that

A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere

We can’t sit and wallow in despair

Let our words become action

Let us rise to the challenge of this great nation

Let us shock them

Though us, they may condemn

We must not pay attention to them

We are

The

black

youth

Nubian kings and queens

The future of our great community

Even though it might seem strange

Let them watch as we begin to inspire change