For Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Dontre Hamilton, John Crawford III, Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Kimani Gray, Jerame Reid, Freddie Gray, et al.

(Here, a comprehensive list of the people killed by police in America in 2016. This is for those with the 'B' under the race column.)

-

Here is the headline - a new name, a similar face, the same body
                 black, bleeding, butchered
on the pavement.

You have my brother's smile, my father's eyes, my uncle's nose.

You look like me.

Yesterday you were someone's husband
                 and I know that when she sees you again in that black suit, her grief will split her down the middle because this is not how it was supposed to go
someone's father, someone's brother, someone's son, someone's friend.
Today, you are a hashtag.

And, my God bear witness, do I know anger. I feel rage. I grieve. I am drowning in sorrow.

You, my brothers, my sisters, your blood is staining the ground and they will feed me the thug narrative,
They will tell me you were a bad person,
That you had a gun/wore a hoodie/resisted arrest/were black.
You were guilty.
Your only crime the skin you were born in.

Tell me, America, does blood come out in the wash?
Can you dance on the tombstones and forget that is a graveyard?

We built your country, with all your luxuries, with our blood,
Our spines bent as we toiled.
We paid the price with our lives and still you show us our debt.

(The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolisation, dehumanisation, organisation, polarisation, preparation, extermination and denial, in case you wondered if this sounded sorta familiar.)
And all we can taste is blood.
Soon we will hunger and thirst for it.

Negroes,
Sweet and docile,
Meek, humble and kind:
Beware the day
They change their mind!
Wind
In the cotton fields,
Gentle Breeze:
Beware the hour
It uproots trees!

-Langston Hughes