Poem | The pain my ancestors felt

Armond Gray, senior kinesiology major

Devoid of emotion

Not enough words to fill the spaces of my thoughts,

I’m speechless.

But am I surprised?

Whites taking Black lives

Like we’re a prize,

Killing us like animals,

Police officers being their guise.

A system that has been against us since day one,

We were not seen as human when this all begun.

I’m starting to become numb to the pain

Starting to feel the pain my ancestors felt, I now understand

My skin speaking for me before I’ve opened my mouth

We’re not too far removed from the Jim Crow South.

But it’s the land of the free, right?

What else could America throw at me?

How about George Floyd, killed with a knee in his neck while shouting,“I CAN’T BREATHE”

Or what about Ms. Breonna Taylor, gunned down in her own home, while she was asleep?

But we cannot forget the black man that was killed while going on a jog; his name was Ahmaud Arbery.

If it’s a problem for us, it’s a problem for all

Sometimes I want to ball up in a ball and bawl

But we must fight the good fight, we must persevere

We must demand justice, and like Ms. Angelou said, RISE, with no fear.