Homerun: The Verdict is in

Two verdicts today 

& there’s no hip-hip hurray 

There’s the verdict of the jury & the verdict of the American people 

Wondering if murdering Black people in the streets is illegal? 

Police witnesses took the stand & shocked the nation

Blue over truth led to centuries of damnation 

Lawyers say don’t bring bias to jury deliberation 

but our identities matter & that’s our frustration

The news says “we’ve all got skin in the game” 

but do we all carry the disproportionate burden of names

of people turned to ghosts & memories by bullets 

chokeholds and brutality taught in training booklets ?

The country saw 9 minutes of sorrow 

We realized it was longer in the following tomorrows 

The defense asked us to look 60 minutes before

but there’s 400 plus years ready for America to explore 

With white supremacy dressed up as objectivity 

Bias, morals and identity become an enemy 

when in reality, we see how policing protects property over people 

for years, the court ruled murdering our loved ones was legal  

Courts fought to justify relentless white rage 

the media misunderstood centuries of collective outrage

The courts are the problem, I don’t see them as the solution

today we jump for joy, tomorrow we’re up for prosecution

They put Floyd on trial & talked about drugs 

then his heart was “too big,” – “oh, wasn’t he a thug?” 

He died at the hands of white supremacy, at the knee of Chavin

“We can’t breathe” has been our protest slogan 

What does it mean to be “fair” 

when we look for justice everywhere 

in the schools, the courts, the streets,

we’ve already asked nicely for a taste of free 

Now we have videos of death in HD and 4K 

George Floyd screaming for his mother is on replay 

This is not justice, we all saw what we saw 

it’s not just about one cop breaking the law

We’re collectively holding our breath 

between the verdict and the next police threat 

A person answers for it today, but we need a justice system 

we need wisdom, healing for victims, we need people to listen 

we are tired of being gaslit, it feels good to be acknowledged

they say things will only make sense if we go to college 

but no amount of education would make this make sense 

some of these behaviors don’t even deserve a defense  

there were so many excuses made to distort cruelty 

how is responsibility thrown away in the line of duty?

monoxide gases, drugs, distractions and an enlarged heart 

did the defense not think kneeling on a neck played its part? 

will what we’ve see with our own eyes be rejected by justice? 

can we have one day, one moment, to just feel wondrous

it’s hard to feel the impact of today’s verdict 

when death is inevitable in a system imperfect 

we marched around Jericho singing “Black Lives Matter”

but this verdict is not a “happily ever after” 

it was nice to see the blue wall tumbling down 

but no matter the verdict, our loved ones stay in the ground 

the jury took ten and a half hours 

I want to believe where there are people, there is power  

but I understand how the judicial system works 

I spent years in school learning the quirks & missing the perks 

so to me, No institution can catalyze a Revolution 

“guilty” sounds great but it’s not the solution 

Accountability is not the same as justice 

being objective and stoic is not the same as toughness 

This moment should lead to abolition & liberation 

we don’t need to center cops who take pleasure in our degradation 

we can make a choice to center public safety 

where parents get to love on their babies 

love their bodies and feed them food 

not mourning in cemeteries because of an officer’s bad mood 

our intuition is our expert witness, common sense is an asset

but common sense and humanitarian crises hasn’t delivered us as yet

this is a racial reckoning that’s shocking to no one 

this is one case, what we need is a home run.