Look

2020 – jun 6  |  10:41 pm

look away
if you must

but this is
the
moment

history is being written
in footsteps on pavement
in lungs gasping through tear gas
in baton bruised forearms
and rubber bullet blindness 

you get to choose
who you will be
for all of history 

look away 
if you must 

but what you’ve only seen
on the big screen
is real
right now
the story is here
you can be on the side of justice 

(you know, the one you root for during the whole film)

will you be the one
who saved lives
but weeps to realize you could have saved
even just
one
more
if you’d been a little more courageous

or will you look away 
from the face of these 
atrocities 

will you watch in the street
or on a live stream
as “i can’t breathe” 
becomes a last breath?

hope
(and mothers everywhere)
dying, too 

or will you lift your eyes
write history
with your feet
and your voice
in the street
fist raised to the sky
grasping for hope
a better world IS within reach