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Kenneth R. Jenkins | + Follow Poet |
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I Can'T Breathe

A social commentary  

 

ALL BLACK MALES LIVES DO MATTER! 

 

We the ones who get beaten and battered 

Screaming out injustices as loud and clearly 

But it’s what I saw that’s not clear to me, 

Is why this man is suppressed with a knee in his neck? 

And since the last time I checked, 

The glory days of the South shown in black and white 

Has turned into a shade of gray and seeing what’s not right, 

Even in 2020 where injustices are being displayed 

Hashed out and served to those flee bitten dogs as they lay, 

On the neck of another Black man taking away his hopes 

His dreams, his ambitions and now he has to cope 

With this dream crusher in a blue uniform. 

 

Now, where’s your hooded suits you put away long ago? 

Where’s the love in your soul? 

Or your heart is beating out hate 

While another Black Male dies until it’s too late? 

Where is your hooded suit you hide in shame? 

 
Thinking every Black man has a target on his back and not knowing their name. 

How dare you ignore the fact of this crime, 

Looking for a way to give more time 

To kill another Black male 

Or suffering them off to die in jail 

With no justice or promise of peace, 

In the meantime, crime of our men increases. 

 

I speak in anger and in concern 

Of this injustice crime being brought and we learn, 

That another Black male will die tonight 

By the hands of a vicious cop under the street lights, 

While another mother mourns 

Of that was born, 

In a cruel world where it’s a police state 

Not a peaceful place where it might be too late. 

 

And he spoke in a whisper to our souls, 

“I can’t breathe” but no one else heard or being told 

That he couldn’t breathe his truth to you and I 

But instead, he dies.... 

All there was silence among us. 

29 May 2020

Copyright © Kenneth R. Jenkins | Year Posted 2020

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