I don’t need a Sara Bareilles song

to tell me that you, finally, are the one.

Though, I acknowledge I have been searching

for what feels like forever pre-us.

But then every night when we video call,

and you’re still in your pajamas from before,

and I have a blanket over me constantly fighting it

because it keeps covering my camera,

I know I have finally found the one I’ve been looking for,

even though I have the contrast down low,

I see you clearly, and your skin glows.

Even though I have the volume down,

I know your voice, because you call to me often

and I can’t resist you- why would I want to?

And every night, things are cut short between us,

because my eyelids droop, and my battery is dying,

but we won’t go out, not tonight, or any other night-

we’ve got too much energy.

We finally got it right

Peace, silence

No more fight

We buried our differences

Along with our lives

Underneath the ash

Smoke and fire

The trees will rebuild

Animals will survive

And from the ashes

We will not rise

But it's for the better perhaps

For Earth will thrive

the fifteen year old black boy

who i was neighbors with

(and could have been my cousin)

that was taken to the station

for blasting his music too loud

while pumping his older brothers gas

and who was beaten in the process of his arrest

and locked in holding with no call

no human treatment

only the skittles in his pocket

that they thought was a gun

and later choked him for it

while he screamed "i can't breathe!"

...My mom and i cried because, for the first time, the cops didnt get off

©SelfTitled, 2017