We Must Remember to Succeed

One thing we must remember to do Is succeed. We have been glued on our knees And hung on trees By those who swear That we are too needy. I hear gunshots all around my city. And anxiety fills my chest Whenever I see my brother leap Due to the fact of Police Brutality I Am Exhausted. I'm terrified to bring another black girl in the world Knowing that I may have to stroke her curls And tell her about how the school to prison pipeline works Or tell her that she may forever be disrespected. Because the color of her skin Will be taunted and fetishized and metaphorically devoured By any man who may walk in But we must consider success. We held our hands upon our breast And chanted to, persay,a land A man A piece of government. Betrayed. Never were we meant for success Because the test we take to get a higher education Was made by a man who specifically did not want us to do that Fist in the air Unite. We must show our gold kings That they are just everything And our queens are dripping of rythm And that we all beautifully vary We must consider success When the blood of our brothers Ooze down their necks All thanks to an officer Who gets off shooting black Boys and black men We must consider success When our sisters thighs our full of neglect And our our speeches are just considered attitude And our bodies are valued as Just Sex. We must consider Success. Black men and women We have nothing left Our tounges and thick lips Our braids and our limbs Our Roots and the stories within Success.