Today, lynching has gone
From roped necks and trees
To piercing bullets and klan knees;
Free from guilt and doing no wrong.
Yet, the hued victims remain the
Same;
And seeking immediate justice seems
Just insane;
Today’s dead man walking, is surely
A young or old black;
There’s no shadow of doubt that normal
Racist murder is back.
Those blacks that the present pandemic pulsating virus
Don’t infect and kill,
Many—you can bet—roving racist cops and their peers
Most surely will.
No matter which perpetrator of the two will cause our
Black families to grieve,
Keloid memories will be echoes of those ghostly words,
“I can’t breathe…”
From many rains ago, it has been proven that with racism
“[We all can’t]…just get along…”
And while we wander racist injustice together, it also seems
“Burn baby burn” has not gone.