Look at them like they’re different 

Like they’re wrong 

Were handed a bad deck, 

With too much melanin 

Don’t fit your perfect 

Condescension oozing through your words 

Distaste flickering in your eyes 

Watch the news, see the deaths 

They’re the problem, you say 

Stuff them all in a ditch somewhere 

Slap “ghetto” on the door 

Clean your hands and look away 

Not a second of sleep lost 

…they’re the problem… 

Or maybe it’s you 

Your “us” and “them” is 

Poison slipping through our veins 

So, shut up 

Hold out your hand 

When they fall 

They would do the same 

They don’t start out hardened 

Don’t start out flinching when you approach 

Don’t start out knowing to ignore you 

As you clutch your purse in the elevator 

Don’t start out terrified for their lives 

At the sight of a cop  

They’re taught 

Taught not to feel, by fear 

By the thousands of hashtags, 

All that is left of their loved ones 

And it’s not “them”, not “they” 

It’s us, all of us 

Together we fall 

Together we break 

Together we rise