I Believe Black Lives Matter

• Nyarath Gatkuoth, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2017

I believe the justice system has won,
Because there are black bodies piled up from a white man's gun.
I believe we had a dream, now he's dead.
We’ll all be scraped from history and treated as what we are: a blackhead.
Bloodshed; call it the black sea.
We don't have privilege because a Negro is still not free.
I believe they were to serve and protect,
But now they've made it clear I'm next.
I believe we all have a slave mentality,
That being denied progress isn't an abnormality.
I hope my words hit with the same legality as police brutality.
Cultural appropriation has robbed my originality,
And clothes, hair speech, and overall personality.
I believe it's a black genocide,
Yes, you hashtag when someone dies,
But to go talk about race is social suicide.
I believe in skipping all the small talk and chatter,
But to know that black lives matter.