I see the ageless bodies of war, stoic face with fire eyes selling $2 tee shirts and $10 baskets pounding blood stained pavement with cackling heels of men in blue sending Morse code messages: stay put advertised with despotic smiles. I see mothers raising their sons education for freedom not in desks how to stay alive battle paint lipstick across screaming sealed lips. I hear everything you say when I once heard silence.
I see battle scars gushing wounds blood and teeth suffocating my vision, empty bottles of dreams that died in the womb flesh veins stabbed thousands of times by the enemy hands of friends; coats of gentleman who have outgrown their millions now used as sleeping bags for the ragged and war torn. No eyes just clutching the next cup of comfort, life ending, life saving, meant to strangle fear and hope. I see warring men where I once saw addiction.
I feel vibration of drum hearts pounding my throat choking frantic and annoying children sitting in seats breathing in orders hurricane bodies. "Disobedience" branded on skin while torment rages inside there is massacre and fire and disembodied limbs breaking free of words and worksheets tapping pencil drum beats ancestral anger. "Sit down" I say, just another revolver shot to the face of history "ok" he says. I see rancor where I once saw obedience.
I hear piercing laughter crackling pavement trash lined veins into blood stained streets, running through the children of forgotten communities, struggle and style to pump pump the heart full of blood and knowing. Survival becomes a different word than I've experienced; it means beauty and violence and beaten eyes staring through lined pockets of laws and justice and white bags into white hands from condemned buildings to Mercedes Benz birthed from an emaciated history. I see resilliance where I once saw crime.
I hear genocide bullets from TV news reporting stock exchange numbers to dying masses EKG scans charting invisible money to real men in hospital beds. Hole punched wounds- murdered by lesson 3 in grade school “slavery is over”. Rising heat waves from rattled voices. Too tired to yell, I hear it in eyes piercing, uncomfortable, righteous melting protest signs. Dollar store windows advertised to save you, the invisible hand holding keys to shackles. I see lies where I once saw education.
I see barricade grandmothers pushing $10 baskets with food for howling families fed on bread laced with freedom, chanting laughter. Circles of souls feeding one another through education marinated in love and truth in churches and bars, schools and homes, "each one teach one" and they do. tormenting knowledge streets pulsating rage and limitless love enclosing ricochet bodies chain linked arms; the smell of freedom and fear, arms crossed, powerful, fighting for their homes and food, family and dignity. Fought every day through exhaustion. eyes bright, lit with the communities forged and nourished through courageous devotion, anger and strength. I see love where I once saw chaos.
I feel tired eyes, meeting and locking on hot cement as we pass. Screaming through pores, tired feet, marching hearts. It's so loud and clear and human and simple, I stop and wonder, what happens to a heart that doesn't hear pain? What happens to eyes that don't see truth? tumbling, falling through the history of death, cruelty, hiearchy, oppression. Manufactured deception and dehumanization, centuries and centuries of screams ignored have lead us here. Death, heavy graveyard of ecoing resistance of wind and power, unbearably loud in the everlasting audacity to survive. Now, I can hear everything you say when I once heard silence.
