- Pilisa Mackey
I Swear I Can Taste The Blood
I swear I can taste the blood
Even when I’m eating salad
It coats the lettuce leaves
The blood of every slave
Of children to whom reparations
Were never truly paid
I swear I can taste the sweat
As little beads drip down
His sleeves or down his neck
When the boys in blue roll by
One, two three, and dead
I swear I can hear the screams
Sucked from the mouths of frightened children
Their secret places ravaged in holy sanctuaries
Shamed and stained Soli Deo Gloria
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I swear I can feel the sorrow
Of a people forced to borrow
The idols of their masters
My people love and worship a little white lie
That can never love them back
I swear I am holding my breath
Because why should I breathe
When my peoples lives mean nothing
When my city fears the death of its buildings
Before the death of Black people
Why should I go on
When the blood
And the sweat
And the screams and the sorrow
Haunt all my living moments
Pulsing like a deadly metronome
Or the metal click of a gun
Coming for me
Waiting for me
Hungry to consume
My Blood
My Sweat
My Sorrow
My Screams
P.C: Michelle Johnsen