Endangered Species
for George Floyd
'BioDun J. Ogundayo
White knee on a
Black neck… Same old story?
The hungry gaze of a
Predator cop
The satanic look
Of the ravenous hunter
Of hate
White knee on a
Black neck
A harvest most obscene
Strange fruit, George Floyd.
Minneapolis.
Memorial Day 2020.
Another reminder of our blackness
The Black holocaust
When we were bound, lashed, and raped…
And sold for pittance
Because
We dared to be black, brown, and bronze
We dared to men
We dared to be people…
1920
Across the Middle Passage our travails
Told in tears, blood, and branding
Because
We dared to be
Black, brown, and bronze
We dared to be men
1820
White knee on a
Black neck
I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
In the land of the free
That our blood and sweat
Built.
The foul air blows
Freely… and freer than
George Floyd
Spring mourns the ceaseless evil
Spawned
In the dark well of hate…
Because
We dare to be
Black, brown, and bronze
And men.
1720
White knee on a
Black neck
The machine of hate
Marches on
Mothers wail, across the centuries
Chains and manacles
Barracoons and Prisons
Tasers and guns
Soul-less rationalizations
Logic twisted as Truth
Because
We dare to be
Black, brown, and bronze
Because
We dare to be men like
George Floyd
Philando Castile
Emmet Till
Michael Brown
Trayvon Martins
Martin
Tamir Rice
Eric Garner
Ahmaud Arbery
Ahmadou Diallo
Abner Louima: sodomized with a plunger
And a million others…
Because we dare to be
Men
Black, brown, and bronze
People…
Swimming against the pus of hate!
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