Submitted by Michael Emerson in response to George Floyd’s murder
It breaks my heart to write this down,
It breaks it more to not.
It breaks my heart to hear the news,
Another person shot.
Another man with darker skin,
Or woman with her curls,
Murdered. Nothing more or less.
We mourn these boys and girls.
These problems aren’t new at all,
Perhaps the saddest part,
Is that for many hundred years,
This country’s torn apart.
By hatred and by bigotry,
By racism and greed.
Riots in our streets the plant,
And slavery the seed.
Our sins are not forgiven,
And please make no mistake,
The sins are ours,
And ours alone – to solve our choice to make.
No longer can we pass it off,
The problems haven’t gone.
To be a racist – horrible,
Complacent – just as wrong.
Our brothers they are crying,
Our sisters filled with grief,
Our family is bleeding,
At the hands of our police.
They’re screaming for their liberty,
Dying – to be free.
Knees to necks that suffocate,
These souls that cannot breathe.
I want to see the finish line,
I yearn to cling to hope.
But once again our country fails me,
Lynched without a rope.
It’s hard to see an end to this,
Without supreme collapse,
But what’s a burning target,
To whip marks on a back.
Do we deserve this country?
The one we stole and raped?
Or is this now our just dessert,
For centuries of pain.
It breaks my heart to write this,
It breaks it more to not.
But how can I not write this,
Another boy’s been shot.
by Michael Emerson
