July 21st, 2015

July 21st, 2015 The class of 2015 has experienced a great tragedy today Just a mere 2 months since graduation and one of our own has fallen A casualty in a war none of us asked to be fighting in How is it that news like this travels like running water but only in the black community? He was just as important as any Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, or Bree Newson He was an innocent forced into an impure world and taken down by the purest form of steel someone could fit into a cylinder Our youth are marching one by one into the war zone we call home Living life like toy soldiers dreading the day these streets get tired of us and shoot us down to the bottom of the toy box Since when did black teen dead go from headline to punchline? Angelo's dead because none of our people could offer him a lifeline A lifetime of accomplishments, failures, mistakes, heartache, stolen At the speed of a bullet At the cost of an iPhone, pocket change, someone's ego Unfinished I can't help but think that we're all just unfinished stories waiting for someone to put a period at the end of us, a coffin underneath us I don't want to be someone's short story, their motivation to live their lives as full as can be, a hash tag on someone's instagram description A chalk outline on a Milwaukee street, teddy bears on a random tree I don't want to be Period.