Only Poetry

When they see us

Written on 10/12/2022

At 3:16 am

Inspired by the Netflix series "When they see us"

Shackled,

My childhood branded by a crime I didn't commit.

Surrounded,

By white faces asking accusing questions from Central Park.

Promising to send me home if I answer one more question,

I was but a child I didn't know they were building a case against me to go to prison.

A white lady was raped on the night we went out,

We heard the sirens and started running away from the sound.

We didn't do anything wrong, it was instinctual,

We couldn't stand still till the cops finished their ritual.

So, we ran as fast as our legs could take us,

Some of us didn't make it too far before the police caught us.

I ain't seen no lady,

I was strolling with my bud, Eddie.

I ain't seen no lady,

I was walking away from responsibility.

I ain't seen no lady,

I was about to head home when a cop tackled me.

But they didn't care that I was innocent,

They've found a convenient suspect.

Someone too young to drink,

But old enough to rot in jail in a blink.

And that someone happened to be black,

Of course, he has to be the culprit cuz they only know how to attack.

When they see us, they fire,

They call us animals without a tire.

They see the devil in our skins,

Like our creation is the worst of sins.

They kept saying they were on our sides,

We believed them for one brief moment that resides.

I made a deal with the devil,

Which entailed selling him, my soul.

I just wanted to be a kid again,

Have my freedom back after this storm for a rain.

You help me and I help you,

Sounded like a ship to Tokyo.

They made us lie and sell each other,

On the false hope that we'll get out of there.

They kept talking about a lady we hadn't seen,

Asking us what clothes she was wearing and where we had been.

Nowhere around her was an unacceptable answer,

We had to be there doing whatever had happened to her.

Lost were the dreams of someday playing in the NBA,

Or not being called a felon or sex offender for a day.

Gone were the eyes that lit up at the idea of tomorrow,

They stripped our spirits and pierced them with an arrow.

All for a white prosecutor to be crowned a hero,

For falsely convicting teens from 110th Avenue.

What're 41 million dollars in compensation,

When 5 children's dreams ceased from fruitation.

Everyone expected them to fall back,

But they knew what they had at stake.

So, they moved slowly with their heads down,

Though they had nothing to be ashamed of now.