This past Wednesday, September 28, 2016, a group of Lenoir-Rhyne seniors facilitated a silent sit-in to acknowledge the chaos surrounding police brutality. I was one of those seniors.
This event has opened my eyes to so many things, so I feel obligated to give you my first hand experience in the form of poetry.
Hard floors and numb rears
I sit here in silence because
they expect me to yell
I sit here
because my brother lay over there
bleeding out because
they were afraid of him
As my brothers blood flows into the sewage drains
his passion evaporates and rains down on the fields
of little brown children
they absorb his knowledge as well as his fear
My brother is dead
but his love will live on for eternity
I mourn the loss of my sisters
those that died because
angry was the only word
some used to describe them
Angry Black Woman!
They struck you down
right beside my brother
Pools of your blood meet
but I'm not sure this is what they meant
when they said one love
Mr. Officer
you lay there too
struck down because you were
feared like my brother
your love for protecting every citizen
drips onto the concrete
you hope it will leak onto
your evil brother
making him more gentle; more kind
and less likely to take out another on of mine
All bodies lay in the streets
being trampled by hate
souls being crushed by angry feet
no one ever looks down
stepping on the very hashtags they created
waiting on another to fall
This is a very special poem because it addresses many misunderstandings. Black Lives Matter does not mean that no other life does. It does not mean anti-white or anti-law enforcement. It just means that we matter, also. Because that's not something that's been realized by many. When you see riots and such on the television, you begin to associate that with every black face you see. You think the guy standing behind you in the grocery store must surely hate your guts, so you assume that they are not worthy of a smile. You fear him because of what people that look like him have done. That's not fair. This sit-in brought a ton of people together here at LR and we plan on facilitating more events in hopes of the same effect.
People fear what they do not know, so we encourage you to talk with us. We are here to educate. One Love.
