Black Lives Matter

by

Jackie Lopez Lopez

You can’t fool me.

Black lives matter

because Kingdom Come matters,

because love matters.

Like the rivers that pulse in my sea, I see.

Like the earthquake beneath my feet, I feel.

Like a handsome tornado in the sun, I hear.

Like a butterfly on a sunflower, I taste.

Like a hierophant in the slave quarters, I know.

I know because I have to make a living in this Godforsaken land.

The cops follow me.

The doctors arrest me.

The principal lies to me.

The teacher implores me…”be white.”

Oh, but I know black lives matter.

I’m no fool.

I know what redemption means.

I know what soulful music means.

I know what heroines and heroes are.

I am a historian on the back porch of my grandmother’s house.

And, Africa gave the world music.

And, I’ve got the drum in my heart beating because of it.

I will not stand down.

I will not salute the KKK.

I will pollute the elite with truth and poverty.

We shall see if they can survive on that.

Intelligence is not a university degree.

It is a heart.

For knowledge without the eye of virtue, is for not.

Black lives matter because black is the genius behind everything in the universe.

Black lives have spoken up for me, so, now I speak in praise to them.

For black are the color of my eyes, black is the color of my soul, and black were the color of my grandmother’s thighs