2020
Ahmaud Aubery
Breonna Taylor
George Floyd
Protests
Black Lives Matter
Awakening of America
to what has always been
for black people in America
The waves of death keep coming, cresting and crashing
I catch my breath
feel myself drowning in the intense waves
of yet another unnecessary death of yet
another person of color
I swim up out of the despair
pop up for another breath
2021
A new year… let me breathe anew
Then the Atlanta Murders
6 Asian women
But is it “really” a hate crime
authorities ponder
Giving credence to the words
of a mass murderer
who says it wasn’t a hate crime.
I know of its truth
a hate crime
Asian women — the oriental exotic, the abusable, the invisible:
Daoyou Feng
Hyun Jung Grant
Suncha Kim
Soon Chung Park
Xiaojie Tan
Yong Ae Yue
The waves of death keep coming, cresting and crashing
I catch my breath
feel myself drowning in the intense waves
of yet another unnecessary death of yet
another person of color
I swim up out of the despair
pop up for another breath
Today, another black man
Young Daunte Wright
The waves of death keep coming, cresting and crashing
I catch my breath
feel myself drowning in the intense waves
of yet another unnecessary death of yet
another person of color
I swim up out of the despair
pop up for another breath
When will we be able to breathe
and not fight for another breath
When will we be able to just breathe
this beautiful air
that has been bestowed upon each and every one one of us
When will we be able to just breathe
this beautiful air
moment, after moment, after moment
endless and limitless
