“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

I want you all to close the eyes to your mind.

Close your eyes,
and somewhere deep inside your psyche,
imagine.

Imagine there is a burning cross on a lawn;
itchy fingers, warm tongues, frigid hearts.

There is a black man sitting on his porch.
Shotgun in hand,
synchronizing the rocking of his chair
to the familiar whistling of wood burning to cinders.

A man stands between him and them,
and a bible nestled between his chest and his forearm.
A small handgun between the pages
and a small prayer-like taste stuck to his lips.

White faces hiding behind white sheets.
A man hiding behind his faith and his God.

Black pride hiding behind absolutely nothing—
he pleads for mercy; for righteousness.
But these white boys will always be white boys.

A man approaches him, club in hand—
a starving dog, ready to feast.
He pulls the pistol from its holy shield.
One warning shot to the heavens,
and the next he warrants goes between his eyes.

But these white boys will always be white boys.
The preacher shoots him like he promised,
as the heard of jackals become enraged.

No book pages from a holy host can save them now.

Moments pass,
and a couple more men are dead.
Two men end up standing on two stools,
two ropes strung around two necks.

Tears stream down the preacher man’s face—
that taste of prayers still stinging his lips.
He looks over at the man beside him—
the look of stone-cold inevitability encumbers his face.

He pleads one last time,
but these white boys will always be white boys.

As the preacher hangs like a newly born carcass,
twitching with fear,
and the smell of cinders still lingering as a white fog in the air.

But before he closes his eyes for good,
he imagines somewhere,
deep inside his psyche,
two men walking on peaceful roads.

No burning crosses,
no white boys hiding behind white sheets,
no police brutality,
no protests,
no need for movements.

Just men and women sitting on their porches.
The laughter as rich as the heavens.

A world where men are not defined by their skin color,
but by the footprints they leave in the sands of the Earth.

A world where people are not defined as black or white,
but as men and women.

They say boys will always be boys,
but it’s truly the men who redefine the meaning of humanity.

So now I want you all to open the eyes to your mind.
Open your eyes,
and look around the world.

I see no black or white, brown or yellow.
I see no race or creed,
I see no gay or transgender, lesbian or straight.

No, when I look around this Earth,
all I can see are humans.

Just humans.
All beautiful people—all the same.

Now think of how far we’ve come,
but then I want you to think of how far we still have to go.
I want you all to now open the eyes to your mind.
Open your eyes and imagine
a world where everyone sees
people and only the pigmentation of their hearts.

Open your eyes,
please just open your eyes now.

For Ahmaud Arbery. 

~