It was July 13, 2013, a stifling summer night when I read across the bottom of the TV screen "George Zimmerman found not guilty." 

I  was only 12 years old at the time, so it didn't really cross my mind. 

Although, I thought it was strange that a white man got away with leaving an innocent Black brother in the street.

 

Little Trayvon was just walking home with nothing but an Arizona Tea and some skittles to eat. 

Georgie said he was scared for his life so he called the police.

He had one job, two choices...to shoot or to flee?

 

The only weapon I can say Trayvon had was the color of his skin, 

skin as beautiful as the night sky,

of course they're afraid of the dark so they decide we all must die!

Even if we do comply, we're still deemed as a threat.

Don't do too much or else, you'll end up dead.

 

No justice will be served even when the evidence is clear,

Even when the swastika is where the badge lies, that won't interfere.

This country is built off of these injustices,

I'm so desensitized.

I can't fathom the fact that being black will get me killed,

so I must compromise. 

 

I feel like a caged bird waiting to be freed.

But when the seasons change, the chains get stronger and harder to bear.

My bones ache from running for more than hundreds of years.

Instiutionalized, although I am idolized by white society.

The irony.

They want the fruit that my ancestors grew, but weren't allowed to eat.

 

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

The darker the flesh, the more likely they'll shoot.

Embedding self-hating ideologies into my brain to disconnect me from my roots.

 

I'm sick and tired of going through the days, of feeling the aches and pains of being young, black, and educated.

I'm only 18 and I see this world in so much vain. 

How can something so beautiful, cause so much pain?