Asphyxiated

     What part of me is THAT threatening to you? To make you even slightly support what he’s threatening to do? You’re acting as if we’re trying to claim we’re better than you. We’re asking to be addressed before the weapons are drew. 

Well, drawn. 

At least there’s justice in poetry. When I was crying out for help, you didn’t so much as notice me. When that became too much to bear, I knelt and you broke my knee. You chain me up in shackles while my killers are roaming free. When people walked in support of me you riddled and closed the streets. 

What is it I’ve done to you that makes you so uncomfortable? My parents kissed me goodbye just like you sent your son to school. 

Take a deeper look and try to see some of your son in me. If nothing else you’ve got the simple fact that we’ve got blood that bleeds. You would go to war for dogs, why can’t you have that love for me? I scream “protect my life” and you respond “protect this country?” Sheesh. 

That’s the reality I’ve been forced to accept. While being hunted by those you claim are called to protect. I was living in plain sight ‘til they recorded my death. When you took the weight of the world and dropped it all on my neck. 

         - The Black Male in America, drained and furious. 

                  Blackmail in America, Same Experience. 

      You treat my death like I’m supposed to be dead. Then you take your privilege and hold it over my head. You don’t take time to consider my emotional tread. Just tweet “All Lives Matter” as you’re going to bed. And as the president declares war on his own citizens, you watch in admiration while hoping they don’t miss again.

STOP KILLING US. 

I mean that’s all we’re really asking. It’s easier for you to shift the focus from what’s happening. Only time you speak up is to mention that it’s madness. You don’t stop to think about depression or the sadness that’s coming when you think about the fact the victim had kids. The cops ruined a home by execution of the father, now he’ll never get to watch a movie with his daughter. You’ll tell your kids a story as you tuck them into bed, while my mother’s having nightmares that a gun is to my head. 

It’s not the same, it’s bothersome that doesn’t bother you. You just don’t seem to get it, makes me wonder why it’s hard for you. Are you in denial or do you simply just not care to see? The ones set to protect serve would rather see the fear in me. I’m 6’5 and black so they can say that they were scared of me. The story’s solely theirs to tell once I run out of air to breathe.

You expect us to recover from an anvil with Advil,

but you can’t heal the pain with (a leave). You’re committed to being blind, and it pains me to see. Your affinity for police is just a hatred for me. Where was this swift action when it was time to tame a disease? Early curfews, military parading the streets? 

Somehow that doesn’t bother you, I’ve got to
ask why. 

All the ones who did this in history were the
bad guys. 

Hailing bullets at the innocent with gassed eyes. Running over civilians simply so they can pass by? 

What will it take for you, to face the facts and state the truth? Currently you’re contradicting everything that they salute. 

What happened to the values of the flag? Drew a Breeze & your goalpost shifted, that’s kinda sad. I guess the “proud Americans” just don't care enough cause we’re black. 

9:06, I can’t get dinner, I’ll probably get attacked. 

Another casualty of war, it’s just a part of the plan. Pick up my phone and watch the world fall apart in my hand. 

                                     IG: Mamaburrrrr

Institutionalized by an institution of lies. And somehow there's never a sentence for institutional crime. And the truth that you'll find is you get used to the signs, of these not so unusual crimes. Wish we could go back to a time where our youth wasn't dying, oh wait, that time's only produced in my mind. 

It dates back to a time far beyond my memory. It's been going on forever, it's Emmit Till Infinity. 

There's a power to the pen you see, that's way deeper than physically. But I can't rewrite history with metaphors and similes. Thought just being aware was enough, silly me. Seems every body they drop, they're just getting closer to killing me.

Look again. 

     Hi, my name’s Shaun Geddes. 

I’d like to live to see it trending some day. Rather than living through the stories that my friends will explain. My inquiry is simple, I just ask for peace of mind. One day they’ll hold my name up, I’d just like to see the signs. I’ve got some goals and dreams that I intend to reach in time, and a bunch of great ideas that I would like to redesign. 

But it’s obviously ominous, some cops are so incompetent. His common lapse of common sense can cause all my accomplishments to be achieved in posthumous 

fashion. 

I’m praying that that’s not gonna happen. 

 
Those thoughts are never on your mind, so you may never understand. 

I’m an innocent kid who’s treated like a
wanted man.
Tell me, who am I to trust when I get touched by 
Uncle Sam? 

     Black Lives Matter, an imperative movement. If all lives really matter to you, then prove it. 

Stand for us when they put knees on our necks. Fight for the rights that our freedom protects.
And if you can’t do that then you need to accept

That you’re a bigot and the bigger problem, is that you didn’t give a shit who Shaun is. And you don’t care I’ve got a family or care for understanding me. I’m just asking to be seen and you’re not even hearing me.

But I guess with the next hashtag, I’ll try this again. If All Lives Matter, then what about the lives of his kids? And how much clean water did you fly out to Flint?

     So if you’re reading this I challenge you, to an alternative attitude. The way you have the right to watch your son grow up, my dad does too. Which side of history you taking? Sorry but you have to choose. The president divided us in very separate avenues the moment he stood at the podium and said “YOU HAVE TO SHOOT!”

So again I ask,

What part of me is THAT threatening to you? To make you even slightly support what he’s threatening to do? You’re acting as if we’re trying to claim we’re better than you. We’re asking to be addressed before the weapons are drew. 

Well, drawn.

At Some Point How You eXplain It Alienates The Endangered. 

                               Asphyxiate

                                         -Shaun Geddes, on behalf of The Black Male in America

R.I.P. to George Floyd and the myriad of victims to senseless violence at the hands of those sworn to protect them.