The summer is hot and it's not just the temperature. Each summer I dread the headline news of young black males heading to the mortuary, and this summer was no different. The recent shootings of young black males in Toronto had me contemplating Black male bodies and led me to the question, how disposable are we?
I wrote this piece out of frustration as i was on the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) on my way home from work one day in August.
How safe are male black bodies
How secure are we
Amidst all of our insecurities
How much more tolerant are we suppose to be
My skin peels back from these bullets and exposes all my frustrations
This castration of the black male body
We are just shooting targets
Used for practice
Used for malpractice
My mind wonders as I'm in transit
My brothers caught up in the trade
Caught up in the traffic
And I'm not talking bout Wall Street or rush hour
This world feels like kryptonite taking away all our powers
Am I just a commodity to be sold
They take our gold
Come into our homes
Break up our homes
Traumatizing our sons and daughters
Tears run like water
Sisters going to more funerals than weddings and graduations combined
If they are pigs why do I feel like swine?
Jordans stay on our feet
But what is in our minds
We grind
We pine
When the fuck will it be our time
To shine in the garden of Eden
Father Time are you sleeping?
You must have missed our stop
When will I meet you at the top like monolith
Am I equipped to shoulder this burden
Of my dark skin
This melanin
Has us hating our next of kin
Advil or Excederin doesn't deal with this pain of
Black brothers
Killing black brothers
Leaving black mothers
To console black mothers
Hurt black people
Hurting other black people
There is no equal
No sequel
This is the genocide of black people