Being sound asleep was blissful,

Ignorance prolonged my dreams,

My patriotism was my pajamas,

Engraved in every seam.

 

The idea of my struggle coming to an end 30 years before I was born..

Helped me sleep at night,

And the thought of witnessing a burning cross in 2017 was an impossible sight.

 

 

I was in for a rude awakening..

 

 

My nightmare snuck upon me like a venomous python,

A bite for every racial epithet,

I screamed not because of the pain,

But because I watched my own body deteriorate.

 

I cried out to the heavens for hours, 

My stability collapsed like falling towers,

I started to think about my fellow brothers who were slain,

As I remember why I have to "Say Her Name"

JUSTICE! JUSTICE! JUSTICE! I scream,

2017 is far from a dream.

I continued to sleep hoping this burden would go away,

But the poisonous python is here to stay.

 

I've had all that I could take, 

The sneaky serpent was gone, 

And I was awake.

 

Awake at last,

"You're finally free" they say,

Am I really? If pythons besiege me everyday?

The lost are unaware of where society wants them to fit,

I guess they will find out once they get bit.

 

The patriotic wake up their dreams don't seem to end,

But I woke up.. and my nightmare just begins.

 

-Danè Simms