Category: Book

Stolen

~ Vanessa, She of Letters ~ Leave a comment

They are unearthing babies,
Children
Who never had a chance,
Against a system we still don’t understand,
That takes and takes and takes,

My human heart hurts,
My sentient heart hurts,
My living heart hurts,
For a wrong far too late to correct,
And as the numbers tally up
Let us not lose sight of the numbers that are really lives,
Of the lives that were not lost
But taken
Stolen,
Genocide in and of our recent time,
And we haven’t learned our lesson,
As we hold stolen children,
This time immigrants in cages,
For being the wrong…
Color,
Creed,
Nationality,
Ethnicity,
Race,
An inconvenience to other plans,
Inconvenience in this land,
Stolen,
Stolen lands,
Stolen children,
Stolen lives

And They Came With Guns

~ Vanessa, She of Letters ~ Leave a comment

Credit: AFP / Getty

And they came with guns,
Angry,
Determined to end,
The restrictions set forth,
The vinyl gloved,
Masked nose and mouth,
6 feet of distance restrictions,
Priorities first precautions,
Laid forth to try,
Try as we may,
To stifle the exponential death,
Befalling the masses,
Reducing the number of graves of masses,
And they came with guns,
Claiming freedom or death,
Not recognizing death is already the prime player,
Death is the face staring back,
At the fool who only wants “to live free or die”,
Publicly choosing the former,
When living free means accepting death,
For one and all,
Living free,
Without precautions,
Without boundaries set,
For petulant children,
Is choosing mortality,
For each,
And all, unequally,
Death distributed,
Just like it is with liberty and justice;
For all?
And they came with guns,
Masked pale skinned
“Patriots”,
Demanding freedom of mobility,
Before a plague,
Ignoring their fallibility,
They were fearless,
For before a white supremacist society
They had nothing to fear,
Their intimidation,
Was intimidating,
But made no threat to the true establishment,
And they came with guns

Ransom Note: \/\/@R

~ Vanessa, She of Letters ~ Leave a comment

Here come the politicians,
Up for reelection,
Let’s hear their stance,
Their campaign promises

Listen as bombs drop upon a distant shore

Here come the politicians,
Waist deep in controversy,
Scandal! Impeachment!
What to distract?
What to keep an audience hooked?

Plot twist!

Rain down the bombs upon another distant shore.

Here come the politicians,
What have you done?
It was necessary? Was justified?
For the American born!?

Here posted– the stars and stripes,
A pirate flag,
A heckler’s taunt.

Here come the politicians,
-Our president-
-Our leader-
Our King
has declared War,
To save face,
To save his post,
To reign
Supreme

This is not in our name,
But it is our signature,
Forged,
on this international Ransom note,

Red;
In blood,
Our hands are suddenly covered.

Alabama Shame

~ Vanessa, She of Letters ~ Leave a comment

We will shame you
From youth,
For what your body can do,
For the red,
For the sin that someone’s God condemned some woman for,
For the legs you sprout,
For the breasts you grow,
Shame,
Shame for the urges,
No matter how natural,
Shame for conceiving
–Analyzing how, when and why,
Shame when you can,
Shame when you can’t,
Shame for a body everyone seems to have their say in,
Their say inside of,
Shame and sin,
Judgement being bestowed,
By laymen
–Everyone has an opinion,
About your body,
Because political the personal has always been,
Your blood is shed and everyone else claims your pain,
Whether you birth,
Or need other arrangements made,
And your rights are not your own,
For they can,
And will be taken away

Guarding the Sanctuary

~ Vanessa, She of Letters ~ Leave a comment

Heart heavy as hallowed space is again desecrated,
Spilling blood at worship,
Taking life before it’s due,
To feed the hate machine
–The machine churning out young angry men,
To do its bidding,
Placing blame for economic shame,
Hardships, losses
On those who have no input,
No contribution to another’s plight,
But hate blurs
And conspiracies abound,
To feed, feed, feed, the machine,
For she is hungry,
And hate only breeds more hate,
And soon more will be shed,
Until the machine is brought to heel,
But it’s inner workings are a maze,
Of white supremacy, antisemitism, islamophobia, vengeance seeking,
All vying to make their bullet marks,
Where heads are bowed and guard is down,
Where peaceable minds are taken advantage of,
And turning the cheek is being abused,
Our sanctuaries are fortresses now,
Guarding from unknown,
as yet to be hostilities,
We come to worship peacefully,
May it be in peace;
And for those lives lost,
may they be at peace.