IF ALL LIVES MATTERED

If all lives mattered

The bend of a knee was not for prayer or protest,

but a weapon like the barking flesh-ripping dogs or

The water hoses used to put out the fires of unrest.

If all lives mattered why so grotesque

  the treatment of your captives

tortured, hung, despised,

Tried and convicted before any probable causes arrive.

The gangrene from humanity's reckless inhumanity stenches the air and insults the mind

of a people tired of being left behind.

Tired of living with PTSD from society's confounded anxieties.

 If all lives mattered,

Why was it taught to hate another’s color?

 the melting pot boiled a generational stew of

lies, and unrighteous indignation.

Unattended infections fester before healing, becoming

  septic,

 then deadly.

If all lives mattered,

 Then where did the hate come from?