i’m not much younger than Sonya Massey 

by Alexis Raymond

 

i was 26 in 2020 

the same age as Breonna Taylor 

now we’re 4 years apart. 

​

as your fingers fine tune 

our rib cage 

coax it into false safety 

with the music of your protest 

 

you play the tune 

our children dance 

ignoring the sirens 

our hearts in your hand 

 

ripped from our bodies 

like a needle piercing fabric 

violent and quick 

our blood trickles 

 

falling like pretty flower petals 

as i go to pick one up

the tips of my fingers 

taste the puddle of my insides 

 

how sweet, the iron of life 

dripping from our bodies 

staining the world like ink

catching on paper 

 

the history of the hunted 

unwritten, forcibly drained 

humans made inhuman 

turned into something fake 

 

easy for your stomachs to digest

to smell the rot and decay 

death is science 

genocide is made

 

how many gallons of water 

are needed for a year of life 

how many gallons of blood

turn tears into action 

 

i’m afraid of not getting any older

i’ve tasted my own blood 

through the death 

of all the women who look like me

 

as their faces flash across

the nightly news 

i try to teach my ribs

to be a cage 

 

to be my armor in the fight 

there’s a war happening 

only some of us get to close 

our eyes 

 

mine look like theirs

brown like the dust of our bones 

laid down on land 

you forgot wasn’t even yours.