dedicated to the SPEAK! fam, inspired by keith boykin’s “a poem for the millennium march” (must read) and “why do you speak?” by adele (coming out to you soon)

i speak because
overgeneralizing analogies
silence my people
used by folks promoting their struggle
our lives
our histories
are reduced to lines in keynote speeches
our bodies to checkmarks on your discriminatory policies
our votes taken for granted and forgotten in your campaign
and we should be thankful?
where are you getting this from?

this week another young black man was shot in the back by a cop
they called him k-roc
kenmara davis was supposed to graduate in may
be a teacher
now he’s dead
this is in *our* town
i didn’t see you at the vigil…

i don’t believe a person of color sitting on tv reading the news is a victory
how am i going to celebrate them when the stories they are telling
criminalize us
divide us
allow us to be killed
and then laughed at
or hated?
hell no

i speak because
i am more than that
we are more than that

i speak because eli says we are still wandering the streets, caps in hand
& alice assures me that if we mapped the web of friendship,
this is how we’d find each other

i speak because sydette is asking how i stay tethered to community
& mia says it is through a multi-issue politic that does not require us to sell ourselves short

i speak because nadia is speaking
naomi is speaking
adele is speaking
hillary is speaking
lex is speaking
moya is speaking
mike is speaking
ryan is speaking…

our leaders will always claim
to speak for us
while ignoring us
and we know
the only way
we will be heard
is by typing into our speechboards
signing fiercely
opening our lips
liberating our tongues
speaking

speaking…