We Need to Talk…

We need to talk. I'm sorry but... I have to cut you off even though I'll miss you...

Don’t be that way... you know I want you to stay... it’s not me who has the issue.

Actually, speaking honestly, I've overheard many complaints.

I would love to see you live your life free, without any restraints.

I could spend hours with you, just lost in thought as I stare.

Thinking about a better life, as I run my fingers through your hair.

Some say the way we stay together makes me look suspicious.

But the love we share is pure, rare, and luxuriously nutritious.

As I reflect upon my life so far and think back as much as I can. 

You may be the first thing that made me feel like a grown, black man. 

It was you who helped introduce me to the wonderful world of self-care.

You helped me feel less self-conscious when my head started to lose hair.

Some people stare, at times, you can cause a bit of a scene...

Never speaking a word, but somehow, you're seen as unruly or obscene.

You raise my game from lame to main-event, enhance my sexy, and fade cute. 

You enhance my style and match my moves perfectly like a tailor-made suit. 

Even my wife is less likely to like me when you're hanging around...

So I must prepare... to leave you there... stranded and scattered on the ground.

Long and lusciously luxurious, smooth, yet soft to touch...

Until you return to me, I hope I don't miss you too much...

Not just your touch, I’ll miss your warm embrace...

Nothing can replace the feeling of you on my face...

Hoards of haters, jealous of all the flavors we have cooking...

No need to even turn my head, I can feel their eyes looking!

Wait a minute...what’d I say... why are you looking at me weird...

I’m not talking about leaving a lover... I’m shaving off my beard...

The family and I are going on a road trip.

So sadly that means it’s time for a snip...

Usually, my beard is my lucky charm like a four-leaf clover.

But as a Black man in this land, I’m not trying to get pulled over.

Anytime we travel across three or more states in our resident nation.

I must first make sure to curate a peacefully innocent facial presentation. 

I haven’t fought in years, and it’s not like I’m in shape or have a permit to carry.

But for some reason... to some people... simply my presence or existence is scary!

These people don’t know me from Adam, I'm a purposefully partitioned stranger.

But for some reason the sight of my skin makes them feel like they're in danger! 

Now usually I’m not the type of person to be scared of anyone...

But fear doesn’t even factor in when you empower a coward with a gun. 

Before I ruffle the wrong feathers, I’ll take a moment and stop...

This is not a generalization... I am not talking about every cop!

Just like every light that shines bright at night, isn’t necessarily a star,

I’m not talking about all cops, but still too many cops by far!

I know everything is not always as simply explained as can be...

But we are in dire need of solutions, I think everyone can agree.

But the news is ironically getting old because every time I see...

Another new-age public lynching, most times without a noose or tree. 

I know you can’t always believe or explain everything that you see on TV;

But how come one man, can no longer stand, but the other can walk away free?

Police pre-approved executions are allowed by judicial mandates.

All the while capital punishment is still illegal in most cities and states.

You can't escape the bloodshed, they even show it on the news.

Freshly caught clickbait, it's all about the followers and the views.

Strange fruit made into digestible smoothies, ready both day and night.

And if you hear “suspect apprehended peacefully”... they’re usually white. 

News experts on different networks expose; delivering slanderous blows postmortem.

Ensuring to gather and share all the facts, right after they taint and distort them.

Dead men can’t hire defense, so they detail all previous acts of defiant criminality.

Spreading the consensus that these are the consequences of a noncompliant personality.

The public parade displayed R.A.P. sheets filleted; made judged, for all to hear and see.

I don’t recognize any of those other guys, but the villainous victims often look like me.

All the while we force a smile, hearts hardening and numbing...

To the point in time, where many are left with the line of “he had it coming.”

Left there, defenseless and bare, on display for all to witness...

Jogging becomes fleeing the scene versus practicing personal fitness.

Grimm fairy tales of Goldilocks, but she shoots baby bear at the end instead?

Iced cream for brother-man on the fourth floor, and eternal sleep for beauty in her bed.

A teenage savage armed to the teeth with a hoodie and a bag of skittles.

After acquittal, auctioning murder memorabilia only further belittles.

How can a thin blue line be so impervious to bend or break?

Supporters defend the blue to self-preserve and ignore the lethal mistake.

Thought it was his gun... thought it was my apartment... thought it was my taser...?

Can you imagine a barber who meant to grab a comb but instead brushed with a razor?

Black culture matters to America, although black owned they seldom buy. 

Black dollars matter to America, but look what happens when we die?

Unarmed dead bodies followed by outrage then acquittal becomes the normal thing.

Pale Horse riders are apprehended peacefully, then treated to Burger King.

Another brother is sentenced to death for the “crime” of simply resisting...

But realistically every time his capital crime was the act of simply existing.

Family trees are pruned fruitless leaving communities broken and shattered.

And we’re scolded for affirming that that life ever really mattered.

And pay close attention to what they holler back.

How come "all lives matter" doesn’t include black?

But before you draw that blue line in the sand and feel a personal attack...

Please remember that: All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to sit back.

Enough of these bad apples that go unchecked and spoil the whole bunch.

Quick-handed under-trained commandos playing roshambo, where bullet beats punch.

The views they choose to infuse with the news are so illuminating they dapple eyes.

These multimedia montages of mass murdered minorities air as All-American as apple pies.

You’re not even safe inside from this fear-mongered genocide.

Somehow it’s always justified, "Man with gun, scared, the man without, died."

9-minute chokeholds, completely against any and all protocol.

So even when I witness a crime, 9-1-1's a number I’m slow to call?

What if when I’m trying to call a real cop who will protect and serve...

Bad apples respond quicker to the call; ready to kill, neglect, and observe?

I know neglecting while observing seems to be an unnecessary contradiction.

But then paid leave slaps with a limp wrist, to further enable this affliction.

Can't take a stand against or even kneel in respectful silence?

Former green beret said it was ok, but they still take it as defiance?

Reparations for QB1 yield no team, just commercial offers? I’d feel prostituted.

False fear justifies white lies that are seldom disputed; while my concerns are readily refuted.

So I should comply or die, the constitution isn't fully compromised for me.

So that means 3/5 of me deserves a fair trial, where I’m more likely guilty. 

But at least in the courtroom, the racism is more subliminal. 

As you walk in your hair and skin, inks out the word “criminal.”

They just blast, blast, and get a pass, loss of life with the ease of a squeeze.

They’ll drop you fast... so fast, you could catch a cold from the breeze!

They need more training, every day, police make life-morphing decisions.

They need more training, too many work with bias dwarfing their visions!

Instead, they train to murder, not maim, squeeze the trigger, and not to pull.

A 6 feet deeper permanent holding cell, after making the other spot too full.

A careless over-reliance on firearms is something we can’t afford.

Who are you guys? Even Samurais train to fight without their sword!

I know, times have gotten better for black folk, no longer are we legally slaves...

But I’m not the one scared... storming the Capitol... I’m the one who shaves...