Red, Blue & Alabaster, Skin Crimes

Moe Russ – June 12th 2020 – Poetry

Today I want to tear this alabaster skin away
From every sick and twisted crime that has been committed
In the name of whiteness, full of ancient perverse fears.

The white that made right acting  our barbaric bitter violence
Blue bullets piercing the body  red blood pouring down the street
Red hot blood freezing to ice in veins
In vain, grief-stricken  sobbing elders, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, sons, and daughters.
Racked with pain and loss raising faces and voices to be heard above
Echos of the master’s whip scaring the backs of the insouciant slave stolen from his homeland
Left to fend on this broken path.
Bullets aimed directly at the  crime of breathing through a layer of skin tan, golden, ebony
We can’t pretend we are you born into this thin alabaster facade.
Today I want to tear away these alabaster crimes
Centuries of stolen labor, wages, dignity.
Weep deeply and let those paltry tears salt all the open wounds.
Stand up, lash out against these alabaster crimes
Free us all from this enslavement three centuries of this Godforsaken past.