You can’t bring change,
Without making people feel, “some kind of way”
Or causing some kind of “situation”
You can’t make peace,
Without having harmony.
It’s so easy to pretend that,
We’re not parts… of the problem.
It seems easier, to offend our assumed foes, than it is to befriend them
As viscous, instantly-messaged, anonymously sniped, cipher circles keep revolving, on data-draining books, of photo-shopped faces,
And in unfriendly chats of with cyber-bullied snaps.
It’s not “a thin line” between:
Doing “the right thing,” and doing what you know is wrong!
The auto-tune has you drluded you into thinking that, you can “sing.” News flash: you can’t. In my opinion, you sing so wretchedly, you would fuck up shouting, “yeah!”
Don’t mean yo’ misogynist ass should sing that song
(Probably made my point a few lines ago. Sorry, in advance if this poem seems kind of long.)
My community is hoarse, from the constant raising, of angry and anguished voices.
May I recommend that, we make better choices?
Choices that will change our trajectory, and get us moving, in the right direction.
Like my old coach would scold our team, halfway through a game we were losing,
“Gotta make smarter shot selections!”
Choices not to bring, but soothe the pain, with random acts, of kindness and affection.
Maybe “fighting fire with fire” really only scorches the earth because… you can’t fight crime behaving, like criminals.
In urgent times like these: messages need, to be loud, and clear not subliminal.
You can’t improve your neighborhood’s quality of life
By making a “community value” out of snitches-get-stiches “gangsta” code of conduct-
Not only is that illogical- it’s crazy as fuck!
We are cursed, by finna make a plans,
Blaming everything, on the white man,
And passively waiting, for prayers to be answered, twists of fate, and dumb luck.
This paradigm will never change unless we admit that we’re stuck.
Trapped in a maze-with-no-exit, of someone else’s construction
Making a statistical improbability, of violence prevention, or reduction.
But don’t succumb, to despair, or apathy’s seduction.
We need innovatively resilient builders of bridges, and blazers of trails.
We need village keepers who show up at burning buildings carrying their own water pails.
We need fresh sets of critical eyes, new ways of thinking, simpler solutions,
And brighter ideas than the ones that failed
Because our community is off- off track, wildly veering off course, and flying off the rails.
Our traumas intersect, like the scars, from whips on our ancestors’ backs.
We are the remorseful survivors perilously unsafe passage.
But our trauma is just that, not simply excessively emotional baggage.
You can’t be truly trauma-informed, by re-traumatizing victims, and blaming them, for their adversity.
Because we can’t bring about any real change,
With our current trauma-deformed mindset operating within such a structurally flawed habituation,
Without recognizing our commonality, and working together to transform our situation.
We can’t make peace, treating the loss of life and death, like “par for the course,” of a deadly game.
We will never make change,
Thinking and acting the same