Time to Rise
You look
Without seeing
You hear
Without listening
You turn
A blind eye
With your third eye
Even though
You realize
The truth
In real lies
You claim
You despise it
But under the shadows
Of the front line
You sit in silence
The paradox is
You say "Let's put it behind us"
Yet in our presence
Lies the truth
And you sit there
Smug and aloof
You speak
Of you and me
Holding hands
In unity
Yet when I look around
I mostly see
People
Who look like me
You allow them
To misbehave
You doubt us when you're told
"They think we are still their slaves"
But the feelings
Never matter
Til it's your loved ones
Getting buried in their graves
Suddenly
It's a travesty
Because your life
Was hit by a tragedy
Treating us like animals
But when animals attack
You say
"Stop resisting!"
While defenseless
Bullet holes
Stream blood
From our backs
Maybe it's time
For the bird
To stop singing
From the cage
Maybe it's time
To pry back
The bars
And be released
In full rage
You say
"Violence is not the answer!"
Yet it's the only way to us
You speak
And we're supposed to
Peacefully march
As our blood
Floods the streets?
Tired
Of asking nicely
For equality
For scores of years
You smile in our face
Shake our hands
But our request keeps
Falling on deaf ears
Maybe it's time
Since you've held it long enough
Our empires need to rise
In your tenure
You've kidnapped, stolen, and killed
And created a racial divide
It's time to rise
With fists raised
Under a new flag to unite
Time to stop sitting in silent protests
Time for all of those trodden to fight
Time to rise
With one voice
Of the oppressed
With the blood of our ancestors
Marked on our chests!
