We must do better to protect the lives of our Black and Brown youth and ensure Justice for their families. May these images and this poem invite you to imagine something better than the systems we have.
Hands up
Raise your arms up high
Towards the dream, towards the dream
Of America
Was the song they sang to him.Seems they sang a lie.Hands up
Raise your arms up high
In the prayers, is the prayer
Every mamá sings
Lord, keep us and keep him alive.
O Lord, come hear her cries.O come, hear our cries. Hands up
Raise your arms up high
Which he did, that he did
Before that shot rang out.
The threat of thirteen years, eight of K-12 years
Crumpled to the ground. His blood cries out from the ground.“Stay with me” was no real invitation
Just a cheap tagline and goodbye
To a life so young it could hardly take
A shot rarely fired at those
Who have taken much larger guns
And many more lives
As they stormed much bigger alleyways.If the only hermanos whose lives matter
Enough to have dignity despite their circumstance
Are the pale ones, the white ones
Then Cain stands triumphant
Over soil drenched in Abel’s blood
With poison fruit and entangled roots
And rivers running red with blood. Those hands will never wash themselves clean. Hands up
Raise your arms up high
Lord, we’re tired, Lord, we’re “not ok”.
Come and storm this house.
Come and clean it out.
“Duante Wright” and “Adam’s Hands” @shinhappens
