Look around you.

“What do you see that could possibly be good?”

 

In the police brutality

We see the degradation of morality.

Where we see victim blaming,

We don’t offender-shaming.

Between the riots and looting

We see murder, a shooting.

 

You ask me what I could see in the silver lining.

 

I know that things looks bleak,

That the human race looks nothing but weak,

That you don’t see an end

To this, that we can’t pretend

That this isn’t happening every day

We sit in our homes and pray

That this won’t happen to us,

Can’t happen to us,

Can’t be us.

Because they are not us.

It. couldn’t. be. us.

 

But we can’t sit back,

Watching it explode outside

As we try to hide

From the violence, the pain,

The pressure, the strain,

Because we are all a part of this world

You say is to fall apart,

But nothing’s going to change unless you start

Seeing this as an opportunity to improve

This place. You delude

Yourself into believing

There’s nothing you’d be achieving

If   you   stepped   in.

 

I’ll tell you what this all means.

In the explosion of conflicting dreams

It all just seems

It’ll go on forever without a means

To an end.

 

But this is progress

That will not be suppressed,

Not unless

We do something to fix this mess.

 

Peace and equality

can come only from defiance and insurgency.

Night must fall

and darkness will take all.

Fire will take hold

of the values of old.

But this silver lining?

It’s the belief in tomorrow’s sun shining,

In tomorrow’s phoenix rising,

The belief that the pickets

Are signs that we are sick of it

That we’ve had enough of this

That we’re ready to put a stop to this madness.

 

This is what I see in the silver lining.

And no, not “everything is awesome,”

But we are trying.