Floyd
People are desperate, what can they do?
Taking to the streets with knives and pistols?
Most of us are peaceful, we know that’s the way,
but we need change to come, and we need it today
We’re so fed up, can’t we learn from the past?
Still trying to answer the questions we asked…150 years ago?
Is he different from me?
Is there a reason that man can’t be free?
Abraham Lincoln answered that back in 1863
And by 1865 the whole country agreed…
no man, woman, or child should ever walk in chains,
no matter your color, no one should ever suffer the pain
to be treated as less than, or made to walk in fear
That the color of their skin might bring them more tears
That some day they may lay helpless on the ground
with a knee to their neck, unable to speak a sound,
until their life is gone, taken away,
Like the blowing of wind, or the turning of just another day
on the streets…
in the land I call home…
and what can I do, but sit and write this poem?
…hope and pray…that we will learn from our mistakes
and change our foolish ways?
What will it take for us to see
past the color of our skin, the same blood we all bleed?
And as long as one man is under another man’s knee,
none of us will be able to breathe
So no matter your race, color, or creed
…the black man in you, latino in me,
Native American, Jewish, caucasian, Chinese
we will raise our voices together, say in unity…
“I t’s time for us to find TRUE equality,
BREAK the chains of ignorance and greed!’
And until we have won, we shall not concede,
for one of us oppressed means none are free!”
Peace, love, respect, and dignity.
That is what I’m asking for,
That is what we need.