[Poem Michelle Dodd] Time will not be on our side As long as the skin we are in isnt considered human Were not trees whos braches bow in the wind Were strong like the ancestral blood running through our veins Trust me when I say, tears are not red They cannot run through our veins as if, to give us our lives back They fear us because they think the human in us is more animal than anything else The streets are littered with shell casings We cant even make it home anymore There is agony the air, on corners, everywhere There are hauntings on sidewalks, block by block They havent stopped, they havent slowed down There arent enough fingers to hold our peoples name with They were pulled out from our mouths like exit wounds If we move, we get shackled If we stay still, stay silent, time will not be on our side
braches, hauntings, dodd, vein, ancestral