No After Parties For Us.

The party.

They watched our deaths on TV

And in response, they threw us a party

They wanted us to forget

They saw our oppression was heavy

So they threw a few dollars at us

As our bodies flailed they threw dollars And words at our pain

At our cries for change

After 5.

They wrung us out

Then hung us out to dry

The silence is louder than ever before

That silence speaks louder than they ever did

Louder than when they sang our songs in a pretense solidarity

After 4.

The doors to the club were shut

The stores however were open

They dressed our pain in their wares

And peddled it to us for change as change

They asked us to pay for tokens of our pain

The took our victories and sold its colors

After 3.

They turned the party lights off

And we stumbled

Determined to find our way through the darkness

Even while the music and their empty words rang in our ears

After 2.

We were invisible again

Only mirrors saw our pain

Our movements now stiff, belagured

Now we moved and danced alone

Our dance partners, allies having long moved on to another party

Another spectacle

Now.

We hold our own hands and walk through the streets

Our shoes lost or taken at the party

There are no boot straps to pull

So on barefeet we walk home to the waiting mirror

The dawn greets us and we walk slowly but we never stop moving foward.

We will always move forward.