The Gift

We excel beyond measure

We survived the boat ride

Our dignity we still hold

Failures in the art of robbery

Our compassion rises higher than your hatred

We gift you with our peaceful protest.

They diminish us beyond measure

You wired our mouths shut

And we learned to hum melody

Melody that ignited roars

Then you claimed deafness

We gift you with our peaceful protest.

We are used for their glory

You chant our names as we cross the finish line.

Yet your silence is loud like the necks that cracked,

Put on display on the streets in the trees

Silent like the guns,

Used to stop our hearts beating

We gift you with our peaceful protest

We are the light that illuminates

Their darkness is as deep as the ocean

Jesse shattered the Aryan race,

Eight Gold, a sour pill for Hitler

Back to being a show horse

Racing his kind to feed his household

We gift you with our peaceful protest.

We clenched and raised our fists

We exposed your illnesses and blindness,

In your hearts you know we reign supreme

Now we take the knee

Chanting no justice, no peace

We still gift you with our peaceful protests