Poem: Black and Unarmed

50 years since Dr. King was gunned

down in Memphis,

a sad milestone.

Rivers of black blood have flowed

since that April day,

coast to coast,

in big cities and small towns.

Dr. King was unarmed in 1968,

so was Oscar Grant in 2009

Trayvon Martin in 2012

and Michael Brown in 2014.

Tamir Rice packed a toy gun in 2014,

Freddie Gray an illegal knife in 2015.

Anton Sterling was unarmed when

he went down in 2016,

shot,

like Philando Castile the same year

and Stephon Clark two years later.

Black and unarmed,

empty hands in the air,

but still a threat

to the peace,

property

or the man behind the badge

always presumed guilty.

There are many more names than these,

a roll call of victims, testament to white America’s
fear and savagery.