Status Update: May 25th, 2020
By: Eric Ozarowski
Tags: George Floyd, America, Racism, Black Lives Matter, Resistance Poetry

STATUS UPDATE: MAY 25th, 2020

States were running out of moral ventilators long before George’s last breath.

Invisible disease, spreading fear and death.

Step right up: “Perfect tests promised for all patients.”

Lies. Just another test of our patience.

From not enough masks on site

to masking murders in broad daylight.

Practicing six feet

to know exactly how deep

down in the ground

we’ll need to be

when we’re really forced apart.

Forever separated.

Which comes first though:

Forever or an end to segregation?

Quarantine becomes gasoline

spreading like racism:

Silent and deadly.

YOUR SILENCE IS DEADLY.

They loot, we shoot?!

Really?

Fck what they’re takin’.

Fck what they’re breakin’.

This is oppression 400 years in the makin’.

We got cop’s stars and stripes that need to be taken!

Oh. You say you can see?

Well in hindsight, 2020 will leave us all blinded by rubber bullets of unrest.

Loss of vision with crystal clear division.

An eye for an eye.

It’s no wonder we can’t see

that Officer Chauvin

stole all the oxygen.

Sealed it up tight in his pockets.

Where’s the red glare from the rockets?

Death stare — Cameras caught it,

but couldn’t catch his need to breathe.

His need for breath.

George Floyd was KNEED TO DEATH!

Bombs busting, no air.

…

Your silence is replaced by despair.

A nightmare, far from over.

So drunk with disgust we’re sober.

Yet another senseless murder we can no longer deny.

The National Anthem would have played just over four and half times.

If history doesn’t repeat itself,

it sure does rhyme.

George’s injustice struck Colin’s match.

A spark, a flicker, a flash

— back to the past

to reignite a fire lit

by a kid named Kaepernik.

The NFL sure did cap that quick.

Who? Don’t have a CLUE?

Here’s what I need you to do:

Go STUDY what COLIN did back in ’16 at the new CANDLESTICK.

This murder’s no mystery.

It’s reoccurred throughout history.

Privilege and power perpetuate the problem.

Stop right there!

Don’t shoot, don’t —

Shoot, did you miss it?

I said privilege and power perpetuate the problem.

We all must admit

a problem exists

for it to be fixed.

-

I’ll say it again

Let it sink in:

WE ALL MUST ADMIT

A PROBLEM EXISTS

FOR IT TO BE FIXED.

Enough is enough. What’s the matter with us?

#BlackLivesMatter

This banner doesn’t need a Drew Brees to wave,

but does need space when there’s face to save.

LOOK, the flag makes a better buoy than a blindfold.

If we LISTEN, there are truths to be told.

Waves of injustice are drowning America.

We must be more than annoyed.

Add a sadistic president overjoyed

by 40 million unemployed

to the murder of George Floyd.

What do you get?

You get a gorge of a void

that looks a lot like dawn’s early light;

A glimmer of hope, that we will unite.

Peaceful protestors pound the pavement propelling the fight,

as justice awaits, like proof in the night.

.

At last.

Twilight is gleaming in the land of the free.

America’s screaming:

“I CAN’T BREATHE!”

We all fall to one knee.

Cue the lyrics from Francis Scott Key.

As they ring out from sea to shining sea

we’re all drowned by the sound.

Heads are held high under water.

One last gasp —

Derek snatches the air.

Donald fixes his hair.

George lies there,

motionless.

America is drowning.

…

Here’s the question for most of us:

How deep down do you care?