I am Not Unique

White Americans have sold our bright future

At the cost of black lives. This is too high

A cost and there is no future

Cutting our body in half, that doesn’t result in both

Halves dying. We sit in our ivory towers thinking

Less, and comfort ourselves with ornamental

Truth that can never question. Our great

Ancestors had black skin.

The light shining from

Black skin can illuminate

A real future, with ultimate

Truth. Clawing at ourselves, we

Only injure our own potential. White

Frustration is the dark cloud

Blotting out yellow sun, preventing flowering

Black voices from growing to their greatest height.

There is no excuse

For complacency.

Stop wilting when we don’t have the power

To change what a system has

Established. It sounds like the

Cowardice of our fathers. Our mothers

Have acquiesced through fear of fathers showing

The fear of ourselves acted out

As feeble pretense, a facade of true

Power. True power looks at another

Power and does not shrink with inferiority

But asks that it be struck with the full

Might of this opposing force in

Order to strengthen its structure.

We are responsible

For reaching out a hand and asking forgiveness

From our black sisters, brothers, and neighbors.

We sat passively for so long

As their bodies were left in the street. There is no norm

Which cannot be shattered

And overturned,

None of our extended family

Should be left without tears

As we march

Toward our combined

Future. We are one people with

One world.