This week, the Beat will be posting work from writers in the Writers in Baltimore Schools (WBS) program. This work was created at WBS’ Young Writers’ Summer Studio, a six-day writing camp held each year in August. This year, the Beat’s Lisa Snowden-McCray and Brandon Soderberg worked with the students for two of those six days. Some of the work here and much more will be published in WBS’ Writers’ Studio anthology out soon. We began with a piece from WBS founder Patrice Hutton and yesterday, we brought you a poem by WBS writer Abigail Mokuba. Today, it is WBS writer Jahi Heath’s turn…
Black lives matter
They really do
Not just because i’m black
But because i’m telling the truth
When we put our hand up please don’t shoot
But you still shoot
Shame on you
When you shoot us down
More of my race falls to the ground
The more we die
The more we multiply
Letting your bullets fly through the sky
Our riots and protest are our freedom cry
But you’re covering the truth up with a lie
You prevent our message to go through
WITH YOUR AUTHORITY
The problem isn’t us
It’s probably you
This is all a huge lie
And I call this the Black and Blue
Crime
Black skin isn’t something that could be removed
It’s an honor the black people take pride of
But you don’t stop there i guess because you want to be above
But this needs to stop before it’s too late
Because way too many innocent lives are stake
If we don’t make the change now
The future is gone
And would all the victim’s families possibly move on
Stop this now before it’s too late
This only your decision to make