Tag: White supremacy

I See Us (Colors)

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

I look at our daughter

And I see

Me,

I see

You,

I see

Us.

But the world,

Petty and shallow

Sees only monochrome,

Sees not the sunken space under eye that is

Me,

AND the straight chestnut hair

That is you,

The smile like cupids bow

From me

The sharp eyebrow arch from you,

The cheeks,

The small ears– Of my father

The chin,

The height,

The perfect creation

In combination of us,

Can’t they see?

Can’t they see?

Can’t they see beyond

Black,

And white?

Yes, they are Colorblind,

To

The spectrum,

To hues never before seen,

The hues that  were made from you AND me.

The hue that is, she.

They’ll deny me,

Deny you,

Deny us “parent,”

Because they cannot dare to see,

What is right in front of them,

Dare to believe,

Dare to accept

Together,

Us.

Stolen

~ Vanessa ~ 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

What is Justice?

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

[IMAGE: Mural in Minneapolis by Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain, Niko Alexander, and Pablo Hernandez]


What is justice,

When the only proof of a lynching is the very image of it happening,

Again and again?

What is justice when this is the exception?

This is a sick feeling of knowing,

Nothing will bring back

The life battled for,

Too little too late,

What is justice when the very judgement brings with it a greater sense of fear for those of deeper pigmentation?

For vigilante retribution? Revenge?

Why does the hammer of judgement only

Bring to mind more images

More worries

of breathless lungs,

bodies burning,

Of bodies swinging;

That strange fruit

Our people know too well?

May our prayers of peace,

Of this first as a trend

Be met with a  change,

A shift,

Be met with true justice,

–Let [it] “roll down like waters

and righteousness like a mighty stream”

Justice by Homicide

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

I will not look upon

A young boy being slain,

Further trauma  is not in the healing,

This

Is not working.

The mission changes, but the purpose never did,

To cage,  enslave,  end black and brown bodies,

This justice was never just,

It was always just

law and order

–Property protection at any cost,

We will blame the victim,

Will interrogate their life,

Ignoring the bottom line,

Innocent until proven guilty,

And justice is not decided by the police.

A knee,

a choke hold

a tazer-a pistol,

TOmato- tomAto,

At the end of the day

Another dark one dead,

Justice by Homicide,

Another case is at end.

 

Black Joy

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

I need more joy,
Inside my world,
My spirit in need of uplift, of sustenance,
So many tales of those dark skinned like me,
Being taken for granted,
lives taken,
so many brothers, sisters
in need of reminder
that black is beautiful,
and also of joy,
deserving.

Sweet Land of Liberty

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

My country tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty
Of hate I sing,
Of fascism and violence,
White supremacy born,
This is what you’ve always shown,
Only victims see,
Your ideals are ideas,
your system, systemic
racism,
oh sweet land
my criticizicism biting
my love enduring
for what you have yet to be,
for what I believe remains possible,
sweet land of liberty