Black Poetry : Collateral Damages (9/11 fallout)

Legacy21

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jun 25, 2001
401
7
Detroit, MI
Occupation
Poet All Day, Everyday
The day the twin towers crashed to the ground
The United States fell into darkness
The media flooded us with images of destruction
Smoke and flames
Shock on grime smudged faces
Tears and grief stricken expressions
Horrified millions of Americans
There was a call for mercy
A demand for answers
A bloodthirsty cry for war
Memorials erected
Candlelight vigils nationally
Funds allocated for the victims families
Reports of brave firefighters and law enforcement officers
Who lost their lives on that grave day
Flags waving from every building top, house, corner store, and car
Patriotic displays of dedication
In the face of terror
Citizens singing “God Bless America”
United in the cause to show the world our spirits will not be broken
The freedom for which we stand shall not be violated
Americans will not live in fear
Bush becomes an hero overnight
Declaring war on the faceless individuals
Behind the unspeakable crime committed against our great country
Congress approves billions of dollars for Homeland Security and military defense
Yet on that tragic day of September 11th
Hate crimes of harassment, beatings, shootings, and fire bombings
Were committed against innocent Arabs and South Asians
35, 615 children died of starvation
A police officer kills a Black youth
Black men are still racially profiled
Lives are taken daily in the ghettoes
Miseducation continues in our public school systems
Children lack books and toilet paper in schools
Educators are burnt out and underpaid
Financial aid for colleges and universities are denied
Correctional facilities continue to be erected
As the prisons overflow
The vicious cycle of from the streets to jail and back continues
Drug abusers still shoot up and search for the next high
Cocaine, crack, heroine, acid, pills, and tranquilizers are in even greater supply
Natural resources continue to be plundered
Wild species are endangered
The environment is at risk
Millions are murdered
Crime continues to escalate
Just like taxes
No breaks for the burdened masses
Women are raped, battered, and abused
Homeless people line the inner city streets
People are still slaving for minimum wage
Falling beneath poverty lines
Because corporations won’t pay the living wage
Black youth continue to rage
With violent expressions and destructive weapons
Hip hop is still being prostituted
Blacks, Latinos, and other ethnicities are still
Denigrated, displaced, disrespected, discriminated, denied, deprived
Of rights supposedly guaranteed by this country’s Constitution
The privacy of US citizens is still being invaded
The freedom of speech is being silenced
Civil liberties are being violated
Attempts at world peace are being annihilated
Institutionalized racism still exists
Glass ceilings still exists
Economical disparity still exists
Sexism still exists
Religious intolerance still exists
Ignorance still exists
Hatred still exists
Yet there are no messages from the President, television programs, acts of solidarity, moments of silence, national mournings, organized forums, alert levels, or military mobilizations for all the victims of this country’s injustice
We are the collective collateral damages
Ravaged by the fall out of America’s countless sins against humanity
We are the sacrifice in the name of greed and politics
Where the big business of war outweighs the worth of human beings
Yet this country pleads for mercy, demands answers, and declares war
At the expense of peace for the pursuit of personal and political agendas
Leaving us all burnt and bleeding
Bush will offer no mercy, no justice, no peace
For American Justice is no justice at all
No justice at all
No justice at all
Leaving just us
The victims of collateral damages

(c) 2002 by Chantay "Legacy" Leonard
 

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