Maybe reading into a slogan
Your own exclusion
Is a way to avoid
A real reckoning?
To deflect with semantics
The black & white
Sheets of statistics
And lived experience,
All the while saying:
“Me too! Me too!
All Lives Matter!”
Well, of course they do.
And some, apparently,
Matter much more
Than others.
There is a difference
Between affirmation,
Negation & erasure.
I can’t help but wonder:
If you were as aware
Of institutional racism
As you are with grammar
And linguistic aggravation,
Well, maybe… just maybe…
We wouldn’t need to be having
This conversation
Over and over again.
