5 AM tossing and turning
Watching as my eyes are closed the things they fought for
The words they spoke
The passions evoked.
The visions they had.

The wisdom to seek change,
The eloquence with which to convey
That the difference we enflamed,
The differences that enraged

These differences
Become real
Between you and me it is clear
As we stand here
Our color
Our race
Our creed
Our education

And we feel anger
At each other-

And the trigger is pulled
The existence of the man
Who sought to better the life of his family
Gone.
The woman who wanted an education.
Vanished.

Bullets, unlike us
Do not discriminate
Black, brown, white, yellow
A target
no matter of race
will encounter a terrible fate.

We bleed the same blood
And we feel the same pain
And we cry
For a lost mother
For a lost father

And so I toss.
I remember their voices as they roared through the air
The chants they had conjured and the people’s response from theirs.
I remember a change in the life I had grown up to live

And I turn.
I remember them
And their slogans that promised a nation
A life without poverty
Without war

I remember them
And their ideals

A difference was made

You and I

Ideally.
Can learn in the same place,
Superficially.
Work side by side

Yet.
Because my parents were born and raised in a different place
And come from a different race they are discriminated against

And I may work as hard as you,
I may wear the same uniform

I stand by you and fight the same war

But because I’m a little darker

There's the assumption that I will become pregnant at the age sixteen,
leave my education for my family,
become a burden on this country.

We are still blinded by color.
Our arrogance continues to blind common sense.

And I toss and turn.

For fear that their voices, their passion, and their progress will fade.