God Bless The United States

Blessed be God,

For I can call myself an American.

A country that stole, raped, and slaughtered my

Ancestors

But, I, this black boy, can write a poem

On my very expensive metal box

And go to my very dehumanizing job

to barely afford rent.

A blessing.

because across Mother Earth’s sea

I can smell the cinders of the innocent

hear their mother’s wailing grief

feel the blistering heat of their father’s hatred

taste salty, bitter tears of their siblings

While I see their trail of blood that leads to me

Blessed be God,

I was given a decrepit paper

At my birth.

A simple thing

But was not my birth rite

It was earned by agony and strife

a blessing.

Because now my cousins,

Not by blood,

But my cousins, lie bare

And our “just” laws hiss at them

And strike them to be

stolen, raped, and killed

A tune that seems to pattern

Blessed be God.

For I have been graciously blessed by the most High

Because my name could have been on

Trayvon, or Orlando, or Sonya,

Or Emmett, or Brianna, Or Ahmaud

These blessings:

The benevolent grace of our God,

Somehow seem to run dry when 

People need it most

Eventually my time will come too.

When He turns His back to me

Like He did to his son on that cross

And Black boys and Black girls

Will jump in glee 

that they were not named Jason

And consider themselves blessed