Living In ‘Merica
i>Living In ‘Merica
How many protest songs do we have to sing?
I am weary of hearing continuing tales of sadness
Wrapped in verses fraught with pain and angst
Over repeated generational injustices sustained
Voices of outrage covered in angry tears
How many more times can we see things before we are numb?
To the atrocities and genocide
Plastered on our timelines every day
Angry we have to feel some kind of way
The smell of fear and loathing permeate the air
While misinformation and mistrust hold hands
Stroking a latent xenophobia
As the media ringmaster plans the next move
We only see what they want us to see
#editedtruthforthemasses
The news has become a cage match
We are forced to defend our outrage
That often falls on deaf ears covered in privilege and ignorance
Vetted by FOX they believe their source is infallible
And are quick to respond that “All Lives Matter”
When the loss of life is Black in blue hands
(say officer three times fast…Overseer)
But this is not a new scenario
We never really left this plantation matrix
Morphing slavery into sharecropping and strange fruit into video lynching
We have cried for our mothers/fathers/sons/daughters
For years we have tried to tell our side of the story
But verbal truth was always discounted
And we had lying eyes…
Now technology is our oculus for knowledge
Instantaneous verification is still questioned
And police are hardly ever arrested…
Disbelieving eyes glazed over to crimes against people of color
Who are shot and asked questions later
This can’t be real in 2016 some might say
Where can you go without seeing/hearing this almost every day?
Shot while walking
Shot on the ground
Shot for wearing a hoodie
Shot in a car
Shot for selling cigarettes/cds
Shot from a distance…
The pattern of injustice is incomprehensible
This epoch’s version of Jim Crow
Seems as if more they try to come clean, the less we know
And we have railed against the establishment with marches and such
But we have not hit them in their pockets much
So the directive now seems clear
The only way to affect change is to monetarily strike fear
In those who seek to quell our existence
We can no longer be passive in our insistence
To be protected and preserved
and our voices will be heard
When remind them of our power
Collectively, we can affect change
#eattherich2022
And the reverberations of our dissent will demand attention
Time for this paradigm to be eradicated
Because the time for excuses is expired
And this time the Revolution is Streaming Live….
About this poem
Written during the height of the tumultuous blm movement
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Written on February 08, 1973
Submitted by Poetess263 on August 10, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:13 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | aAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,919 |
Words | 506 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 63 |
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"Living In ‘Merica" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/134131/living-in-‘merica>.
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