POEM: TURBULANCE

I cried myself to sleep last night.

Those words written before my head ever hit the pillow.

Heart shattered before the pen ever touched the page.

Just like

Bodies drop before their hands ever reach the sky.

Go ahead

Fire those shots before assessing that life.

Did we become predictable?

Is it now protocol to assume?

To create a narrative that made your client your adversary.

Continue perpetuating this death-state.

Crafted behind that shield, protected by your boys in blue.

Those ancient laws written by those old white hands causing old and new distress.

Can you hear that wailing?

mothers brothers and sisters chanting their new hymns:

Don't talk back; Be less you; Stay away from there, And THEM.

Our new law and order.

Oh, I see...

You wanted us, the edited version.

Shoot--I mean, shit, I thought: land of the free, home of the brave. But it's: land of the oppressed, military state of the shaken.

Led with fear and navigated by tanks filled to the brim with our broken dreams.

Silence the outspoken; the radicalized free-thinkers and justice-seekers.

Those naïve enough to gasp for air.

Peace is now more coveted than gold and freedom rarer than a jade vine.

I cried myself to sleep last night.

Heart overflowed with emptiness as I cried into the black of night. Deciding not to shut my eyes.

Stay woke.

(image credit: Nikisgroove)