WE.

All of us were there when they threw the tires over his head.

Doomed him for hell, in a circle of hate.

We bent our mouths, moved our cars, took the pictures.

And shared them with a vile esctacy of a burning world.

Feel ‘the likes’ that cloud our madness, the comments that make us blind.

We stood at a distance when the class picked the boy, smeared his name on the board.

We watched him cry under our hurling words, break under our elements.

We offered our laughter to the plates, stiffled our questions.

We didn’t shield.

We watched the world burn.

We heard the Adults lie, we turned the coats of truth on our bodies.

We didn’t tell, we didn’t point.

We swallowed their wrongs till it became law for our children.

We deny our strengths to affirm their weakness.

We watched the world burn.

Tomorrow, when you hold the face of your boy, sing to him.

“Once upon a time, the world burned, orange flames licking up the trees.

We had our water, we had our rain -in our belly, in our words.

But we held back, we let fury boil inside.

Today, if you will hearken to my voice.

Do not harden your heart like your fathers”