Last Words

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Last Words

Why are you following me for?

Following us through centuries of oppression.

My freedom wasn’t won in that war,

Though you like to give that impression.

We are black people in white spaces

Followed

By a shooter’s bias, shootings, and shouts of shots fired.

Followed by innocence discovered too late

And justice delivered too little.

Always, followed.

 

Why do you have your guns out?

Accidental dispatch and unarmed

How is it that you got the bailout

And I am the one harmed?

Shoot first, ask later.

Don’t you know you are a hate creator?

I am somebody’s father, brother, husband, son.

But you didn’t think about that before raising your gun.

 

I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting!

But after a struggle, it was decided

Executing was easier than prosecuting.

You shot me! You shot me!

 

Mom, I’m going to college.

It’s not real.

I can’t breathe.

 

Last words on earth

First words of a new revolution.

We need to hurt, remember, and speak.

Speak their names, their words, their stories.

Trayvon Martin, Aura Rosser, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Kenneth

Chamberlain, Kimberle Crenshaw, Michael Brown, Michelle Cusseax, Oscar Grant,

Botham Jean, Riah Milton, Amadou Diallo, Gabriella Nevarez, Philando Castille,

Natasha Mckenna, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Atatiana

Jefferson, Stephon Clark, Alton Sterling, Janisha Fonville, Akai Gurley, Tanish Anderson,

Tamir Rice, [Insert so many more names here]

 

Stand up and follow.

Follow the hatred with peaceful protest.

Follow the pain with love.

Follow each victory with celebration.

We must arm ourselves and each other

With the weapons of compassion and persistence. 

Equality and justice are human rights,

Not white rights.

Let the time come where we can live and love equally

And let our world, our generation be the one to usher it in.

These will be our last words.

***

1] Trayvon Martin – February 26, 2012

[2] Kenneth Chamberlain – November 19, 2011

[3] Michael Brown – August 9, 2014

[4] Oscar Grant – January 1, 2009

[5] Amadou Diallo – February 4, 1999

[6] John Crawford – August 5, 2014

[7] Eric Garner – July 17, 2014    

Here they are!

***

Hailey George has a writer’s heart and a passion for telling her tales. She began her first novel at age 13 and has written every day since. She has published several articles in the Town Crier and Wellington the Magazine and three poetry chapbooks titled Beyond Words, The Emotionless Enigma, and Everything I Didn’t Say. She is currently working on three novels and two more chapbooks.