Black Lives Matter Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

And they march on the streets
by tens, hundreds and thousands
joined in by the voices of protests
reverberating in distant lands.

The blood of the blacks,
screaming for justice
in generations, is awakened
by the death of George Floyd.

"I cannot breathe",
becomes the slogan,
when life is strangulated
by violence, when the freedom
to breathe air is even denied
to human lungs.

Let this march be the march
for peace and justice!
Never again should the blacks
be treated as in the age of slavery
that fueled the boom of US economy.

Never again should racism
because of colors be upheld
in schools and human relations
not in thrones and monuments
of enslaving powers that kill.
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