As I Rise

By Isha Clarke

As I rise each day, I walk the pages of history
The thump of marching feet like a typewriter
Sentences formed by Zoom transcripts
Chapters marked by the bang of fireworks
This is the mark of an era
Revolution
Our world is crumbling . . .
It is time to start again,
Our ancestors link arms and join forces as we do
Black and brown, solidarity fills the 6 ft between us
The people will not be erased
Liberation
We dig up the foundation of genocide,
Refusing to let our planet die,
We call to our mother for guidance
As he did . . . George Floyd
We say his name
Breonna Taylor
We say her name
Tony McDade
We say his name
No more martyrs
The pain of our people billows like the toxic air shoved down our throats
We can’t breathe . . . literally . . . neither could he
A period abruptly placed on his life, his neck
Lynched
Black Death on camera
Normalized violence inflicted upon sacred black body
As we chant their names, they become forever crystallized in history
This history will become a manifesto for future generations
No more murdered fathers, or mothers, or lovers
The people will dance, sing, march, and scream our true freedom into fruition
Each day we wake in our own prophecy carved into the stones we throw at police cars
We live and breathe Liberation
This moment is The People’s Revolution