My Breathless Gospel Poem by Adams King

Let the truth be told to everyman
That bares my skin and race
Before now we've been breathless
Left with no supply of brotherly oxygen

Our own selfish deeds mocks our color
Our shameful sin brought us low
Our inhumanity against ourselves
All for an earthly borrowed crown

We suffer the deeds of our fathers
Our greed had led us to this path
Inferiority had been our malady
Ingrained into our bones and blood

Among the disciples of blacks
There is a betraying Judas
Who watches his own in locks and chains
And sit to glorify his name

I have been breathless
Since the unspeakable act of xenophobia
Since my own sinned against me
And my brothers took my life

I have breathless
Since you sold me out as slave
And watched me dragged on mud
Whipped and forcefully taken away

I have been breathless
Since I heard it was a black man
Who ravished my virgin daughter
And left her gasping for breath

I have been breathless
Since I heard it was an officer in black
Who shot dead my teenage daughter
And wounded my very own soul

I have been breathless
Since you traded my freedom
To earn a white man's praise
His alliances and treasures

Now like the Jesus of my race
I bare the wounds and bruises
Carried a cross meant for all
and died for my sinful brothers

I have lives and mattered before now
but you failed to see my essence
Now I fight for air to breath fine
Let the world preach my breathless gospel