Something that has to be earned, but given so freely… Difficult to repair the shards, so who will believe me? It’s so easily broken… No one to turn to so it’s harder to focus… Must be in the water… Plus the shade of my skin makes the word even farther… To not be a target, in a portrait… Aimed at daily by those you supported… Either you load us up with bullets, or plant it on us, or say we smoked or snorted… It resorts back to this word, trust… the hope that you don’t kill us it just ain’t enough, to lean on… You see us only as demons & it never dawns on the pawns with weapons drawn that I’m a king… Portray us to be gang affiliated, but y’all throwing more signs than me… That are seen by everybody… My worst nightmare consists of me holding my child’s body by the hands of a cop with the complex of gotti… How could it be that you serve & protect? In fact you blatantly bully & disrespect… Our mothers, & hide behind blue suits, badges, but you’d rather it be white covers, or sheets… I seek refuge, but you refuse to give shelter & heat, especially when it’s free, but not the land of it… You feed our communities poison, but the highest quality of all things you seem to covet… If, one day the tables would turn… If you would look at us with more of a concern.. If you would look at us as human, instead of burn us at the stake… then trust wouldn’t be converted into hate… We all make mistakes, & by far are perfect… I see a pattern that when it involves dark faces they call off the searches… We birthed this Nation, from the blood soaked clothes that exposed our ancestors scarred faces… How could you be racist? Just get a 23 & me kit to see how much sub-saharan you got in, your veins… Would you really condemn yourself to be hanged, beaten, or embarrassed? Get punished to death for being born this heritage? Apparently, they say history repeats… They just construct the prisons they bury us beneath… Without being discreet about it… Institutionalize us until we forget the scent of a flower… The only power we have, is free will… Just to drown us in the deepest water like we were born with a set of gills… We still live in a world where trust does not matter… We still snatch the shards out of our feet from the shattered, trust…

Dennis J. Watson
DOC #A632936