Free and Brave

For the land of the free, and the home of the brave.where brave means taking a step outside of my parents' homeand recognizing i'm in a target zone.my leg, 2 cops go free unknown.my stomach, 4 cops.my neck, 6 stomps crushing my bones.my head? no need. i'm already dead.it shouldn't make sense that i'm so tense,that i literally shake in the presence of civil defense,that my life is a story and it's always full of suspense,because tomorrow is not a promise to me and the black community.i have a degree in police brutality,taken 16 years of this native language, spoken internationallyyet i don't enunciate fluently because je ne comprends pas pourquoi le racisme est ici.

brave means attending an institutionthat uses the mathematical art of substitutionto replace black excellence with the laws of isaac newton.i speak in proper english for i only wishpeople could see me as perfect.it's a different tongue i use around the school,not to look cool, but so i look more pronounced and stand out in the college application pool.i utilize every opportunity propelled, kicked, shot at meand collect the information in its entirety.do you see my broad vocabulary?secondary resources is what i rely on to succeedbecause i can't change the fact that my education cost whiteTEEN.99this system's education was not built for a black girl named caroline; a girl who believesin the idea of diversity, but has yet to see her wish of appreciation for her melanin skin come true.

5 plus 6 equals 11, the year that SATs are in session,meaning college board is getting their wealthbut somehow forgotten that this amountwas the number of times eric garner screamed for help.i can't breathe, i can't breathe, i can't breathe, i can't breathe,i can't breathe, i can't breathe, i can't breathe, i can't breathe,i can't breathe, i can't breathe, i can't breathe.he can no longer speak for the man is deceased.may his soul rest in peace.

sometimes, i just have to wonder,what would francis scott key thinkif he were to witness what happened in our world today:"the land of the free and the home of the brave"?when writing those words, did he imaginethat those phrases were a lie?that they defy the foundation this country was built on?he should've written"for your white supremacy and the home of the slave."

free means i proudly speak of black historywith no restraints. this is not the first time the truthhas disappeared because of this system's fear that we are here, together,white and minority ears hear the same message, "change is near."it is everywhere we acknowledge that posting isn't enough andmurdering is beyond too much.it is white people memorizing dr. king's words:"injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."it is understanding that protests are peaceful until the police become lethal.it is knowing the names of every single slave that survived the plague known as today.

we don't demand justice, we deserve it.it shouldn't be some prize we have to idolize, rather a goal we can control.much like how the national guard proposes the use of guns and horsesto trample our justified ideals and hopes, to reveal that black lives matter should be real. george floyd gasped for air, not only because he couldn't breathe, but because he couldn't seea future where his family was not screaming due to the knee of a white man serving the system's police.regis korchinski-paquet was falling for a few seconds, but some see that time as worthless because it's all the life she had left.our skin is confident, our being is prominent,and i will not stop writing until we are not seenas approximates...