Royal Blood
Labored breathing
Molecules speeding
A twitch in my right eye
Feeling as though you’re about to burst
With no outlet to discharge all of this energy
Nowhere to direct it

Trying to keep a poker face as you discuss
A heavy chest
Filled with a rich history of distrust
Knots in my abdomen
While social media is filled with issue
Opinions of those that will never walk in my skin
Let alone my shoes
And everyone has the answers
They see dead people

While I see die-ins
Sidewalk chalks of homicides
Figuratively saying fuck the police
Or maybe the system at hand
The Man
As our forefathers called them…
It.
They.
Oppression at it’s finest

Imposing itself upon those in America

In very different ways
As Ice Cube blares through my headphones
And things remain the same
As if maybe history repeats itself
Constant images of Rodney King

Time and time again
Unarmed
Deathly Hallows and heads bloodied
Unbowed
A river flows through the United States
Formulated of the tears of Black Mothers
Sisters
Brothers
Daughters
Sons
Or anyone that gives a damn about HUMANITY
Vanity
Taking a hold of me
I’m supposed to be better than this
Born in the gutter
Surrounded by blankets of familial love
Finding solace inside the leaves of stories
Of distant lands

Ancestral planes that we’ll never experience
Imaginary bliss
Escape from the horror of reality
And they ask why grown men love video games
Maybe because we get to come back
After being killed
Respawned
If only Eric Garner had Mario’s green mushroom

Plus one life
Yet I digress
Back to the real world where
We have CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS
Tell us that our lives are still worth
Three fifths of a vote
Yet we rise above it all

First class to change the forecast

A sea of lights
Outside the window of my flight
In my heart there remains a fight
To love humanity more than the day before
And to teach the next generation that
You matter…
We matter…

All while remembering

To live inside of your truth
And to remain the Kings and Queens that you are.

Of Royal Blood.

Daymyen Tyler Layne
-2018

Inspired by a quote from – Dr. Steven Thurston Oliver –
“The lives that they decide to live, actually become powerful forms of protest.”