Analysis of Do We Not Matter?



We live in a society
Where melanin equates to hate,
And leads
To murder.
Cold. Bloodied. Murder.
By those who are meant to make us feel safe
The most.

The police.
The most corrupt creation of all.
Abusing their power
And for what?
The validation?
The placard on the wall?
The pay check?

It doesn’t make sense at all!

As people of colour
Are we meant to leave our homes
Not knowing if we will return to
Our loved ones later on?
Is that the meaning of life?
Is THIS the life I have been destined?

Is this the life that has been written for me?

Please tell me why,
The police believe they can beat
Innocent civilians to death?
Sexually assault and murder women
And shoot people from inside their own homes?
And yet
THEY
can go home to their
Wives, husbands and kids,
Whereas, those people,
Those innocent people
Will never see another day again!

The police are designed
To make us feel safe.
And protect us from the world.
But instead,
They’ve become the one thing we fear the most.

Melanin isn’t what equates to hate,
Ego and power is.
Believing you’re above the law
And that “this is a man’s world”.

Listen
This is not a man’s world
This is the real world.
Power doesn’t allow you the right to end lives,
To use force on peaceful protests.
Ego shouldn’t allow you the rape women
To scare women.
To harass women.

Do. Goddamn. Better.
Do your jobs.
The actual Goddamn job.
Not the job you believe you have.

“We need to do better if we are to live harmoniously”

They need to do better.

Surely, our lives matter.


Scheme ABXCCDE XFCXGFX F CHXXXX A XXXGHXXXXIIX XDJXE BXXJ GJJXXGGG CXXX A C C
Poetic Form
Metre 11000100 11000111 01 110 11010 1111111111 01 001 010101011 010110 011 0010 010101 011 111111 11011 11111101 110111011 1011101 1101011 110111110 11011111011 1111 00101111 10001011 10000101010 0110101111 01 1 11111 11001 01110 110010 1101010101 001101 11111 0011101 101 1010111101 100110111 100101 01010101 0111011 10 111011 11011 10101101111 1111101 1010110110 1110 10110 1110 111 010011 10110111 1111101111101000 111110 1010110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,566
Words 338
Sentences 38
Stanzas 13
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 1, 6, 1, 12, 5, 4, 8, 4, 1, 1, 1
Lines Amount 58
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 90
Words per stanza (avg) 22

About this poem

This poem was written from the mindset of a young black woman living in the modern world and seeing the injustice, feeling helpless that she can’t do anything. From the news, it’s clear that the police are corrupt, especially in the United States, so this poem was written to vocalise the strong feelings she has about that topic.

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Written on January 24, 2023

Submitted by Elysialaidlaw18 on February 24, 2023

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:41 min read
0

Elysia Laidlaw

Elysia Laidlaw started writing poetry during the Coronavirus pandemic. She had written chapters in the past but has really enjoyed experiencing with poetry/ more…

All Elysia Laidlaw poems | Elysia Laidlaw Books

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