We Can't Breathe

Blood covered sheets fill these streets.
Dead bodies everywhere.
Another mother without a son.
Another wife without a husband.
Another child without a parent.
Another human life turned into a hashtag.
A whole community gasping for air because we can’t breathe.
The cries get attention, but the message is lost.
Debates on the evening news as to who’s right and who’s wrong.
Everyone forgetting that a human life ended at the hands of another.
The people in power ignore the fact that we can’t breathe.
We walk around on eggshells.
Don’t look threatening.
Keep hands outside pockets.
Hold onto the breath you have left.
Remember that in a black man’s hands a wallet is a gun.
Sagging pants make you a drug dealer.
Asking questions make you a menace.
Our lives hold value.
Yet there’s still bloody sheets, lifeless bodies, and cries of anger.
Let. Us. Breathe.
We have been gasping for air for far too long.
How many times do we have to yell “WE CAN’T BREATHE!” until the world believes us?
I’m holding my breath until the day that we can breathe.
Just let us breathe.


-Asia Aneka Anderson
Tumblr: AsiaWrites