There is a void, air still, nothing breathing, nothing moving

Not a black hole to be sucked into to, just a white space

Absence of noise, of love, of pain 

Unnatural 

The silence, the music of life does not exist here, it feels like forever being in mid breath 

If you pressed pause on life this is it

 

Who created this place on earth

It is almost unfathomable that this place could exist anywhere outside outer space, in a sci-fi movie, in a galaxy millions of light years from earth

Who could create a space without light, without love, without air, when they have seen a newborn baby's face

When they have felt soft cotton against their skin, a lover’s breath against neck, when they have been freed from a cage and felt the wind beneath their wings

When you have escaped death, not once, not twice, looked it straight in the face, bold

When you have experienced the sweltering dry heat of a Texan summer, had your bones frozen stone cold in Minnesota winters

When your limbs have been broken and your skull crushed by oppression, when your soul has exploded into thousands of pieces crashing to the ground, shattering like glass

You have laid on the ground in pieces, lost but not searching, and tied yourself back together through sheer will, you have lived and breathed Sojourner Truth's truth, you know you are a woman 

Your heart has survived countless trials and tribulations, been slammed into car doors and driven away, tossed around like a dodgeball, stolen and returned, cracked then healed, never broken

Never broken

So how can you press pause, be stuck between replay and fast forward, when you know it never lasts forever-- how can your heart be weak, break under the light touch of a feather, hold fast, be strong my brother

A country was built on the backs of woman darker than tar, full of smiles brighter than stars, a country was built on the tears of boys never knowing mothers and fathers, a country was built on the unholy splitting of holy matrimony, a country was built in false ideals of equality, a country was built on mock democracy and look at it today

This country sometimes recognizes the temple of your body as more than worthy, as yours to claim, to own, to maim

This country gives you choice, death in ten flavors of vanilla, fifty shades of off white

This country gives you love, in secret shadowed places, love wrapped in pretty pastel laces, love that tells you not to throw it in their faces, then you'll be okay

You have been beaten, shaken, lungs dragged from your chest aching for their last breath, I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe,  I can't breathe

You are the leader of the free world, hope hanging on your words, the pride of many in your fingertip alone, you can see what your brothers and sisters cannot, please

Tell me why in your pursuit of happiness you decided to quit, find this oasis in what you thought was a desert but is actually a sea, teeming with life underneath the surface

Tell me why you placed your faith in a mirage that is hiding from you the gory bloody details wrapped in sunshine and instead only feeds you lies

Tell me why you can't believe me that the grass is green on this side, that the yellow of this polluted air mixed with your despair caused gases in their houses to float up there, poke holes here

 

Because, the world is empty

 

You tell me that you feel nothing, that you're trapped in an igloo made of transparent snow but you feel no cold

That the world you live in is translucent, you feel no pain, see no color, and you're bored

Or perhaps maybe your boredom is a cover up for your annoyance or your fear because you fear that it is not normal to feel nothing

You don't feel anything, not even in the very depths of your soul, as you're crushed by the rock that is man,  that is the world, that is stacked against you and all you can say is more weight but you still don't feel any pain 

Still don't feel any pain 

So you created this vacant space

This space that is isn't a space, the absence of everything, not just color, there is nothing here nothing, not black not white not dark or light 

Just nothing 

I tell you I can paint the world azure blues and verdant greens, vibrant yellows and fiery orange, I can breathe In life, fill in the purple black bruises, can make you feel pain, make you feel light, feel the burn of life in your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your throat, bask in it, choke on it, breathe it, love it, please

I beg that you let me take you from here, take you from the most human inhuman place because it is only us, it is only us that know, that understand that this place exists and we must hide it, we must hide it or keep it or else the homo sapien will cease to exist 

 

Because, the world is empty 

But we can make it full