Writers Block: Poetry - K.D.A. Daniel-Bey

He’s dead
Not because he was thuggin’ / or bangin’ / or being a public nuisance
No, he’s gone / because we failed him

We failed him by failing ourselves / by failing our history / failing
our posterity / holding our lives so cheaply / discarding one another
so quickly / therefore we failed him . . . / & because of our failure /
another young man, not just another colored/negro/black/African /
but another young man is dead

See / it doesn’t matter if it was at the hand of a wannabe
neighborhood watch cop / that had too much time on his hands
& not enough sense in his head / Nor was it because he was a
Euro-Hispanic bigot, tired of “them always getting away with it”
/ not even because that overzealous and highly suspect idiot / was
allowed to legally carry a gun / even with two strikes against him
on an honest-to-God official police record / who didn’t even follow
official police direction.

No, Trayvon is dead, and we killed him.
See / those six—? jurors did what juries have been doing for over
a hundred & fifty years / when a cheaply valued life / has/is/was
/ taken for sport / When a grown man with a gun can’t subdue a
skinny seventeen-year-old boy, armed with a bag of skittles / so
he manufactures a situation in order to slay that boy / Knowing /
believing / Assured . . . that he won’t be held accountable for the no
count life he has taken.

So Trayvon is dead.
He’s dead / like the hundreds of other Trayvons, Biancas & Ayannas
found broken & lifeless everyday / all over this great U. S. of A. The
Yummys & Amadous, Rodneys & Malices who / found themselves in
a stressful way / making a fateful decision on a faithless day / Their
lives torn away so cheaply / easily / not even holding any value to
their families / until they won’t see . . . them anymore.

We’re responsible.
The thing is / we’ll stand up when there’s a sound bite / but not
when it’s the right / thing to do / the hard thing, the smart thing,
the unity thing / We won’t demand our young people receive a good
education / a good home to stay in / healthcare to sustain them / the
proper example & values to sustain a nation / To fight the good fight
/ to bring our butts in at night / To make our neighborhoods right /
for their safety.

So don’t tell me you’re upset that G. Z. / got away with murder when
you line your own children up for the slaughter / daily / Maybe / to
honor this son / Trayvon / you need to let these things inform your
behavior / Stand up for what’s right, as real men and women with
your neighbors / Turn your world, your thoughts, to the efforts of
your labors / Never ever let your faith or you works waiver / until
the job is done

Let us honor Trayvon, the fallen son.

by K.D.A. Daniel-Bey