(Nancy Hanks wrote this poem for me. I named it)

 

We live in a world of blame and guilt and bad decisions and regret.

A constitutional world of slavery and compromise and regret

And blame and guilt and bad decisions.

 

What if we just stopped it?

Just stop it.

 

Stop killing black people.

Let’s create a new world for all people.

 

America, I have had my problems with you

But I don’t hate you.

 

America, we are conflicted. We were born in conflict.

I WELCOME the conflict! Joyously!

 

Bring on your European marauders, your rapists, your slave traders, your buggers.

Bring on your genteel Virginia gentlemen with their compromises, their use of slaves and women.

Bring on the Ku Klux Klan.

Bring on the compromise of generations of poor people who cannot speak out unless we as a people speak out.

Bring on the marginalized.

Bring on the liberals who are no where to be found and haven’t been for generations and are choking in their voice

Bring on the Democrats, bring on the Republicans. Bring on the partisan cabal in America.

Bring on the unorganized, the poor, the marginalized, the oddly privileged, the rich, the stupid, the categorized, the WTF ever

 

We can create a dialogue in our country. We can.

 

No one can tell an oppressed people how to resist.

 

Stop killing black people.

Let’s create a new world for all people.

 

What if we just stopped it.

Just stop it.

 

June 2020