I see a young man
sauntering down the block at a comfortable pace
smile across his face... who doesn’t love a lazy Sunday?

POP!--POP!--POP!
….......
every
one
drops

car screeches skids away
everything moves faster than i can take
in
like a movie scene i’ve seen on the screen never thought i’d be playing a character on the reel
is this real can’t be ears ringing our hearts skipped a beat while one.....ceased...

gravity pulled yanked us all down with the weight of what just happened
happened to happen
why

as people slowly start to get to their knees, come up to their feet
there lies a body. It just..
lays there
but he’s slowly starting to pour into the concrete
maroon rivers, crimson pool, burgundy stains
a piercing of pain
a blow to the head... a friend, a brother, a son, is dead

now he is a tally mark, etched on the long scroll of Oakland’s Lost Men
tears are running as they are running to him, trying to revive him
the wailing of the relative. The saddest song i have heard in my whole life
haunts me to this day, i pray...
i bet the newscast will mention it for 30 seconds today, then tonight at 10pm
then quick to jump to “Hey, John. What’s the weather forecast looking like this week?” without skipping a beat

no one cares, they’re just relieved that it wasn’t them

no one really knows what goes on because they choose not to see the battlefield constantly claiming lives of teens
people pretend to live in a perfect untouched bubble
did a thought bubble ever cross your mind along the lines of, “What if that was my son?”.
you would damn well make sure there were no more guns
out there
But...
hes just an african american boy
he means nothing to you, Mrs. Fru-Fru, admit this
I bet you’d never believe he was a bright child
to whomever he passed he gifted them easy smiles
because he was contagiously happy and sweet and...and.....
his soul couldn’t beat the bullet

WHO THE FUCK PULLED IT?!?!?!?!?!?
cowards cowards cowards
demented twisted heartless cowards
a full ride to Howard...
a beaming brain... with the grace of a crane.
Gone.
as another tally mark is drawn