Poetry Moment: Land Of the Free, Blood Of the Enraged

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart , and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength .’This is the second: ‘You shall [unselfishly] love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:30-31 AMP

The Book of Law, Love and Instruction sets a guideline
For how we should walk through life
The temperament of our minds
Should be like that of Christ
To love deeply, to guide, to give sight to the blind
Yet so many are still walking in darkness
No light before them
No guidance
Yet they see through the eyes of the unrighteous
Therefore they are not blind, but sightless
Night after night the cries of a mistreated, mismanaged tribe
Rips through the darkened skies
Afraid for their lives
Wondering how many more times
They will say, yet I survived
Beyond the hatred of ignorance and unrequited disgust
For no matter how much we may burn with rage, we don’t retaliate in a way that would bring shame to our ancestor’s graves
Yet we fight for our rights
That seem to be altered and changed day after day
Torn from the pages of the law of ages
No constitutional covering hovering over our lives
The words and meanings changed conveniently
While we vehemently recite
Our rights
Of a flawed system
Because face it
Anything that's had 27 amendments
Wasn't finished to begin with
But published
With no regard for the entire general public
Only those of the lighter variety
Receive the protection of its entirety
While minorities who ironically are the majority
Are fed excuses of why the uses of the laws change
Rearrange according to your race
The color of your face
Your skin determines if you win
Another lynching without consequence
Recompense
But even if there was...
Would it matter?
The cries for justice and rights
Have turned into a life for a life
But it still doesn't satisfy the pain of the loss
Life given a price and simply paid off
But why was it taken in the first place?
Why are my people still running this never ending, never winning race?
The same lines, lies, cries
Who’s, what’s, where’s, when’s and why’s
How stings the worst
Hurts, bursts of anger
Fits of rage
The voices of the historically enslaved
Scream from the graves
As yet another soul is lowered into
The horizontal cave
As those they leave behind remain
Awaiting the day
Justice will be served
Punishment deserved
Yet for most that day never came
Their fight in vain
But still... they stand up for the next
Never knowing when it will be the last
Day before true equality will come to pass
Fearing a neverending
Fight to be free at last
Fear turns to anger turns to pain turns to rage
With the reality that retaliation will end in a cage
Or the grave
Living in the land of the free
And the home of the enslaved
When will it be the end?
Once the skin of my kin
Brothers and sisters have been
Erased from this land's face?
When we all have been bound again in chains?
Or controlled systematically
Emphatically made to do what pleases the untamed?
Don't hold your breath
Because before we all conform, we'll meet our death
Fighting for our right to life
Which seems rather odd
Living in one nation under God
Indivisible
Yet divided for being who we are
But who we are is what makes us proud
As the colorful hues of our skin scream aloud
The preservation of the bloodline of doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, scientists and warriors
And it won't end
Yet in frustration they try
They try to overtake our lives
But then they come to realize the truth of what we already know
You can't stop the flow of a magical people
Try as you might, we will continue fight
For life, for our rights
No matter what you thought
We are no longer slaves
Unable to be sold or bought
On the backs of our ancestors
Our freedom was copped
So don't get it twisted
We won't be stopped.