Boxes

Brown boxes, white boxes, pearl colored boxes

Pay for the best box you can find to put your baby in

To put my brother in

"How dare you walk around black and living?"

Put him in a box

Lay him to rest after his heart stopped pumping blood to the rest of his body

60 beats per minute is a resting heart rate

My brother is not resting

24 hours before the soul jumps out of the body to attend its own funeral

My brother attended his murderer's trial

And no one heard him testify

Politics of respectability now state that articles of clothing warrant a death

Since when are hoodies not socially acceptable?

Since when do you need more than a flashlight to "watch" a neighborhood?

It wasn't until July 13, 2013 that I understood why

Why black children are made to come in when street lights come on

Because it is open season on them all after sundown

Had a deer been killed in the forest by a man with no hunting license, he would have at least been fined

The world we live in

Where I, the sister, cry tears of a mother for my brother

For sons that are not mine

For a person I have not met

The world we live in

Where we are secluded to lower class neighborhoods

And when we try to better ourselves, move our families into upperclass neighborhoods

We are shot down because we don't belong

Am I not allowed in your suburb?

Am I not allowed to be successful in your America?

I thought you created integration only to prove that white is better

And black should want what white has

My brother was not the first

Nor was he the last

Not the last black child to be put down like an animal because of his skin color

Not the last black child to buy an Arizona Iced Tea

Not the last black child to want to watch the NBA All-Star Game

Not the last black child to be gunned down

Not the last dead black child to be put on trial for his own murder

He is not the last black child to not receive justice for his death

The point we miss is,

That the justice system is not a failed system

The "Just Us" system was not made to protect us, just them