Thursday, April 5, 2012

Skittles versus Bullets by Kay Rich

After leaving the convenience store,
It was later made evident that Trayvon was shortchanged.
One-hundred-forty-pound kid versus a 250-pound heavyweight?
Sounds like some sick handicap fight had been arranged.

Black face versus white face;
A baggy hoodie versus fitted apparel;
Skittles versus bullets;
AriZona Iced Tea versus a barrel.

His girlfriend on the phone suggested he run;
He decided to merely put his hoodie up and walk faster.
If only he knew his stalker had a gun,
Maybe he could have dashed and it wouldn’t have ended in disaster.

We are all too familiar with this weapon of racial profiling—
Day after day people shoot off the gun of ignorance,
Loaded with the bullets of hate,
Leaving us with the scattered shell casings of anger.
If The People don’t wake up and the powers-at-be don’t change,
Our society is surely headed down a path of even more destruction and danger.