400 Years
Our History erased
Slavery justified
Years of injustice
Years of Pain
The bible Stated people are created equal
But equality, in reality, is just word
Black ink on White paper
Could you even survive it if you tried?
Going for days without food,
Put on display for other people to see;
To purchase, Marked as property
Where they decide how much you are worth
To be prejudiced for the color you were born in
Something way beyond your control and understanding
Being incarcerated too many a times
For crimes you did not commit
Talk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time
Is that even supposed to hold?
And when it finally comes out
Who should take the blame for not looking;
Hard enough for the evidence
For the rightful criminal
Or should we also let that go
I have not even started yet
What did a black man ever do
To deserve this kind of treatment
Tell me;
Do you think it is right?
To take a gun and kill a man unarmed?
To destroy the life of a young boy
Whose dreams are as valid as yours and mine
Is blackness a weapon?
400 years
Should this not be enough a time
To have suffered this much and survived
To have experienced police brutality at its worst
Living a life of fear
Fearing that today might be the day
The last day you ever see your little girl,
Your little man, your wife, your mother, your father
Your last day as a free man
Before you are put away in a box for life
For merely existing
It should never have come to this
Black lives matter
400 years...
© Rhossy Paul