I have a dream

Like the one King had all those years ago

When racism wrapped around black lives

Like a boa constrictor 

Trying to choke out all their light.

I had a dream

That this was all a dream

Or rather a nightmare

Because what kind of world allows all of this to happen.

Are you telling me that life isn't a dream?

But I've seen the boogeymen poking their heads

Around every corner

Shooting those whose skin doesn't fit into

Their white scale world.

I've seen the goblins dressed as judges

Letting those same boogeymen roam free.

And you want to tell me that this is reality?

I can't accept that this is all we deserve.

If this is the only thing I can see

When I'm awake, 

Then I'll live in my dreams

Where my black is beautiful, 

Her asian is beautiful,

His latino is beautiful.

Where, instead of categorically separating each other

Into Crayola boxes with only one color,

We mesh into a beautiful rainbow. 

I had a dream

Where "for a black girl" 

Never followed up a compliment

Where my intellect and not my skin color

Determined my success

Where black excellence didn't have to scream

To be heard.

It could simply be.

I had a dream

One night

As the weight of the world's problems 

Pushed me into my bed

And threatened to never let me up

As visions of black men and boys whose lives ended too soon 

Flashed in front of my eyes

Like a blindfold

As oppression forced my head into my pillow

Trying to suffocate me.

And then I woke up.

I came back to the reality that I owe nothing to

That has torn me down and not built me up.

I had to do that myself.

Despite the ignorance and hate,

Despite the screams of no,

I have woken up and I have stood up

And I will continue to work

Until my dreams are a reality

Until no little boy or girl 

Has to escape into the world of dreams again.

I have a dream,

But I will not rest my eyes again

Until it's real.