Shanta Massie - Fourth Place Tie

“We the People Speak: No Justice, No Peace.”

Black Lives Matter

Hands up, wait don’t shoot, hands up, wait don’t shoot.

We are all people, but we are not equal.

I have my hands in the air while yours is on the trigger

and if I make a wrong move I become

a statistic,

another dead nigga.

So, I stand there still, while my head races, and my heart paces.

Hoping that impregnated thought of racism that

is developing in your head near labor doesn’t rupture

and I make it home to my child and my lover,

who sent me out for a bite to eat.

You say I match a description, and you got a witness,

who said a black man around my age.

That description is vague.

No justice, no peace, no justice, no peace

I plead for my life and

you empty the clip inside me.

You rationalize your actions with fear.

Fears is a man’s worse enemy it drives irrational emotions and actions.

Never got the chance to ask you

why me?

Was it the way that I walked did I not articulate well when I talked

or was it simply the color of my skin?

Was my being black the ultimate sin?

A sin that sentenced me to death.

Ashes to ashes dust to dust,

no justice no peace for people like us.