please, (I can't breathe) 

i don't know if any of us 
have been able to grieve in a while, 
i sit in my room and watch the country
go up in flames, as it turns out, 
the revolution is televised. 

the cops don't show up to out protest
because we're a small town, but I do see
an elderly man flip off a ten year old 
holding a sign, 

nobody wants to hurt anymore, 
i look at my hand and i am scared 
that a crumpled 20 dollar bill could be there 
instead of a pen, 

i watched a cop kill somebody
and still they're saying it wasn't a murder, 
it's never a murder if the murderer is white, 
you can't realise what power is until 
you kill someone and the world says it's ok, 
he had underlying conditions, 
it's just one mistake. 

please ( i can't breathe) 

sometimes i wish we could build 
the damn wall, i wish we could 
stack the bodies of everybody they've killed
along the border to warn them off,
to tell the people coming to turn back, 
i wonder if i will see somebody i know in the pile,

i wish we could start every citizenship interview
with the question: are you willing to see someone kill your child? 
it doesn't matter with what, 
with a knee, 
with a gun, 
i am tired, 
i am so very, very tired. 

i watch people i know couldn't care less 
post on their instagram stories, 
those are the people that don't show up to the protests, 
i watch the girls who have said terrible things to me
say that tolerance matter 
i consider asking my mother if we can drive down
to new york, just to join the rioters, 
the revolution is telelvised, 
and i want to be a part of it. 

please, (i can't breathe)

let it be known that 
i was only fourteen 
when i watched the world burn

let it be known that 
i was only fouteen
when the world watched a man die
and decided enough was enough.