A poem that expresses my thoughts after the death of George Floyd.
She wept
When she woke up and her city was in ruins
When she realized her terrible dream was actually real
And in the blink of an eye, had turned into worse
The reality was a living nightmare like no other
She wept
When she told her excited daughter she could go back out in the world
Because the disease was slowing and it was safe
But within an instance had to ask her to walk back inside
Another disease had made its presence known
And it was no longer safe again
She wept
As they listened to the sirens down the street
The helicopters flying above
The sounds of complete upheaval and unrest
She wept
As she explained that there was another virus upon us
As she told her it had been around for a long time
But had been reignited to a whole new level
And was stronger than ever
She wept
When she told her son about Black Lives Matter
When he didn’t understand
Because in the eyes and hearts of her children
A life is a life, and they all matter the same
She prayed
For the understanding to help them understand
For the inward honesty to enlighten them about white privilege
For the knowledge to find the right words
To empower them to right the wrongs
To be the warriors of change
She prayed
To give thanks that she had found a way in her own life
To ignore the evil she was taught
To question those who came before her
And to live through her own heart
To tell her own truth
To break the chain
She feared
The world that she would be leaving to her kids
That the evil of some would never be overcome
That this broken world was beyond repair
She questioned
How “Love thy neighbor as thyself”
Came with prerequisites
None of which we can control
But that some try to completely dictate
And use to hate
She begged
That God, the Universe and the Powers Above would have mercy
On our hearts and on our souls
That we would be forgiven and learn to forgive
And that we would find the path to unity
And equal love for all humanity
She longed
For the sirens to stop screaming
For the right voices to be heard
For the wrong ones to be silenced
For good
Forever
She hoped
That tomorrow the doors could open again
That the city fires would be gone
But the fire inside us would be stronger than ever
She imagined
A world where color was nothing more than an adjective
Where color no longer created fear or hate
Where black mothers's, brown mothers' and white mothers’ worries Were one in the same
And they were just “mothers”
And people were just “people”
She dreamed
The world changed
But then she woke up to more chaos
More fires
More sirens
More hate
More evil
And then, she wept
