I walked upon the streets and suddenly I couldn’t breathe

The colour of my skin was suffocating me,

The lineage of my kin was suffocating me.

I walked upon the streets and all they could see,

Was a black man, the remnants of slavery.

Not a black man, the builders of their land,

Not the black man who toiled with no thanks.

No, all they could see was the remnants of slavery.

I walked upon the streets and my heart seemed to fail me,

He said stop, I did.

He said come, I came.

But just like those three hundred years ago, I was but still a slave,

My shackle was that gun, my identity was but none.

And with one word, I became a noun.

A George Floyd, An Emmett Till,

I became a memory in my mother’s ear.

I walked upon the streets with fear in mind,

I walked upon the streets and walking became a crime.

I took a jog, they said I robbed,

I asked where the evidence was and all they did was look at me

And it dawned on me,

The evidence was embedded in my skin,

The evidence was the blessing I was born with.

I walked upon the streets and suddenly I couldn’t breathe

And when my son walks upon the streets I say to him remember,

“Hands on the dash”

“Eyes on the floor”

“Make no sudden movements or you are no more”

“Yes Massa, No Massa” I mean “Yes sir, No Sir”

But above all pray to come home.

#blacklivesmatter #stopkillingus

Somewhere along the line, I died and came back to life

Somewhere along the line, God himself granted me peace of mind

Sitting behind that closed door, my soul took a surge

She rose above this planet earth, she transformed.

This measly being, she took another form.

Somewhere along the line,

My mind, she collapsed and she died,

She whispered to me, girl let’s move on and dine

On healthy beings, on things you were once denied.

Somewhere along the line, my smile she reached my eyes

And body, she glowed

like a celestial being , on the float.

High on the peace of the magically endowed.

Somewhere along the line, I enclosed

And God cultivated a new abode, sheltered me with stability

And in this home, he used happiness and divinity as décor

Somewhere along the line, I remembered that I was I

And she remembered that she was I and we became one

We converged and created a hurricane of self love.

#selflove #positive #growth

It was agonising, the loneliness. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, the way it wrapped around me like a black blanket. I tasted the emptiness on my tongue, heard nothing but the deafening silence in the room. The urge to hop from the warm embrace of my bed and scream grew with every tick of the brown clock mounted on the wall and eventually I did. I hopped up and I screamed, in a pillow of course. I screamed in frustration for the lonely feeling building in my stomach. I screamed for the burning sensation crawling up my chest and engulfing my heart.  I hated it, the loneliness. 

Then suddenly that frustration turned into rage. Hot red rage that had me tearing the room apart. I pulled and I threw and I crushed. I wanted to do anything but sit on that cold bed and feel the solitude. I wanted to be occupied so I wouldn't remember that I was alone. The rage was the last resort before I succumbed to tears. They trickled down my cheek past my lips and onto my lap. Yes, I was alone with no friends, no family, nothing. This was what it felt like to be alone and I absolutely hated it.

By

Nia