Before the chain letters of black and white were placed before my eyes
Inducting me into a history
That began on slave ships launched from West Africa
Made me promise to see a darker skin in a different light.
Fed me pabulum of stories, quarantined
Black people inside the deepest chambers of my mind
Invisible bars constructed of fear, ignorance, and money
In solitary confinement, no visitors ever.
Not Lyndon’s Great Society speech, not even Martin’s mountain,
But the murder of George Floyd on a street with a knee to his windpipe
As he pleaded I Can’t Breathe, the barbarity of a killer
Emancipated me. I didn’t see skin. I saw humanity.