With Liberty and Justice for All

Every day, we do a pledge,

standing together in unity to profess our loyalty to our nation;

the nation under God, indivisible, with "liberty and justice for all."

Liberty for all, the pledge says,

as if every day people of color are still not held back

by the restraints that were supposedly abandoned so long ago.

Justice for all, the pledge says,

as if testimonies of victims don’t fall on deaf ears

and predators escape the bonds of this very justice.

But why would they listen?

Are these predators not the ones with the power?

Is it not them who should protect that are harming us?

And so we stand suspended between 

the present and futures of these predators

as mere obstacles and troublesome liars.

As if they are the victims and not us,

victimized by these privileged men,

humiliated by the court.

Yet each day, we continue to pledge ourselves to our nation;

the hand that tenderly wipes the blood of victims away from the predators' cheek 

and the hand that forcefully tapes shut the mouths which speak of liberty and justice for all.