30 August 2020

Tone-Deaf Karen’s Tone-Deaf Meme

Martin looted nothing,

Martin burned nothing,

Martin attacked no one,

 

reads tone-deaf Karen’s 

tone-deaf meme

 

Why can’t you just do that?  

she offers

 

Not to the police,

nor the military,

both armed to the teeth,

fingers itching on the trigger

 

No, her demand 

for non-violence

is directed solely

at those whose cries

for equality are 

still left unanswered

 

Ignoring the vast 

majority of protestors 

who are peaceful

 

Equating a broken store 

window with violence,

like shattered glass 

somehow matches

firing seven bullets 

into someone’s back

 

Why can’t you respond

like Martin did?

she wonders,

 

That’s an awful lot to ask, 

considering King’s protests

were only non-violent

on one side

 

Your meme speaks volumes,

Karen, and this is what I hear:

 

Why can’t you just write 

letters from the prison cell 

they lock you inside

for peacefully protesting?

 

While the government 

tracks and taps you,

considering you 

a national threat

 

Why can’t you march 

peacefully across the bridge,

knowing you’ll return

beaten and bloody,

at the hands of the law,

if you return at all?

 

Why don’t you offer

your brain to the baton,

your tender thigh 

to the sharp daggers

of the dog’s mouth?

 

Hoping that a camera is rolling,

hoping that *this* time

some white American

will be watching

 

and *this* time,

they will finally give a shit

 

that they will finally decide

after fifty-five years -

hell, after four-hundred years -

that your life…

mattered

 

While we debate

and evade the simple

recognition of your value,

why can’t you stand there 

peacefully waiting?

 

While bullets, 

rubber and real,

fly in your direction

from a peaceless officer

or from some kid 

crossing state lines 

to use your body 

as target practice?

 

Let me sit back

in my comfortable privilege

asking you,

 

Why can’t you just be killed

peacefully, like Martin,

letting your brilliance 

drip onto the street,

hoping your blood

will be what finally 

makes us realize

that you mattered


30 Aug 2020





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