LET’S GET UNCOMFORTABLE

Let’s get uncomfortable
You rolling your eyes at a police stop
Knowing you’ll, with ease, go through unscathed
While a Black you
…goes into submission
…begging in their rightness
…while panicking at a gun which might take their lives before judging to ascertain their “crime”

II
Let’s get uncomfortable
Shall we?
You, free to think of impossible and possible dreams
While
…Black names battle through same dreams
…getting eliminated before interviews
As their bodies
…struggle to live through police brutality
…like legally illegal soldiers at an alien battle front

III
Let’s get uncomfortable
Shall we?
You enjoying your meals in surety of the next
Knowing your family will be intact
Because colour does not mar your perfect beings
As Blackness
…pray no harm befall their fathers on the streets
…praying no arms chase and claim the lives of their mothers in their houses
…hoping their little brothers’ toy guns do not brand them terrorists
…and trying so hard to live as a perfect unbreathers in breathing bodies

IV
Let’s get uncomfortable
Shall we?
You, knowing you’ll climb ladders of positions with ease
As same bodies with Black skin, equally qualified, live in thankfulness of being hired
…and try to work so as to not get fired
…struggling at the bottom without complains
…as they look up occasionally at you as you climb

V
Let’s get uncomfortable
Shall we?
You perceived as an intellectual in your skin
As Blacks get scrutinized for any show of intelligence
Listening as they ask and say
…could it be the thickness of your hair?
…Could it be from the schooling that we shared?
…Could it be a mentor who was fair?
…You certainly are a mystery to be fair!

VI
Let’s get uncomfortable
Let’s surely get uncomfortable
Because your Whiteness is your angelic gown
As every Blackness suits a Satan
And so we make you uncomfortable by living
Should we just get uncomfortable by breathing
Because Black is a fault?
Yes, the fault is our Blackness
Even as your religion claims one God created us all
Interesting!

Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © June 26, 2020