for Black Lives lost to police violence

Don’t apologize for what you’ve done

it was the officer’s gun that sealed your fate

and the cutting wind that hollowed your breath

into the back streets of blackness

Down, down, you dove

into the vortex of vanishing days

laughing, sighing as you confessed

your childish logic of love

to conquer the madness and fear

and whatever wounds, regrets and

It is the shape of the moon that dictates the tides

It is the gulf that lies between heaven and earth

forever shimmering, haunting,

Survival is only a bullet between freedom and exile

Freedom is only a leap of faith between

what is and what can never be

Our lives are the barter of jealous gods

History knows nor cares of nothing of

your hopes or my dreams

twisted by sinister tongues

Better to unlock the cage that turns

if we cannot lift the heavy burden

of our shadows from our hearts or remove

the blindfold of acquiescence from our eyes