Emancipation
I choose my words wisely
I speak my mind and say my truth
For that is all I know
That is all I am
Controversiality be damned
200 years of slavery my people suffered
We can never re-write history
We can never re-write pain
Empires and great cities built on the blood and toil of our people
We will not stay silent anymore
200 years later, it's still okay to murder a Black man?
Make it make sense somebody
Why are we being killed?
Why are the men entrusted with the law to protect us the people, killing us the people?
Make it make sense
Is it the colour of my skin that bothers you?
Are you threatened?
Why should I feel insecure about how I look?
Why should panic shoot through me anytime I see a police car pulling up?
Men who have sworn an oath to protect and serve
Why should the black man have to be careful around the police?
Well we all know why
Because one false move and you are dead
Black people do not have the liberty to feel free around the police
When would they learn to start asking questions before they shoot
And not the other way around
Why discriminate?
Why Hate?
Why not communicate?
Rather than looking down on us, why not admire us?
Admire our race?
Black people fought effortlessly and bled for our freedom
A freedom which was at the time considered blasphemy just by even thinking it
But we endured 200 years of slavery
And we flipped that traumatic event into something even white people envy today
We turned it into a culture
Into a way of life
You see the chains on our necks?
You see our corn rows?
You see our way of life?
We are as reformed and changed as a race like a man on Death row
So stop the killing
Stop the Hate
If Black people could put slavery behind them and move on
You could too
We are one people.
About this poem
This poem is written from a place of the familiar struggle black people as a race have faced in the past, our progress so far over the years and our desire to achieve absolute equality in the eyes of the law. It depicts how some black people are treated harshly by the very officers who were sworn to protect us.
Written on February 07, 2023
Submitted by jbawuah38 on February 07, 2023
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:46 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFAGHIJAKHLMNOPQRSTRUVWWWXYZ1 A2 3 4 5 6 4 C7 W8 MH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,743 |
Words | 354 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 46 |
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"Emancipation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/153148/emancipation>.
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