When I Think About You in response to Maya Angelou's "When I Think About Myself"
When I think about you
Brown cracked skin baked in the sun
Eyes that have seen dreams
not allowed to live
Pockets full of dirt
Harvests you will never taste
Homes you built that you
May never own
The invisible labor that sits at
The abundant table
You hope of a better future
to be met with masked men
They drag your bodies into cages
torn from babes’ arms
The stories they tell sound like impossibilities
In the “melting pot” that has spilled
Onto rotting ground
When I think about us
our language
entangled into a single tongue
Flinches at the earth’s bitterness
There is no laughter here
