Black Lives Matter because contrary to bigoted beliefs, 
we are nurturing, forgiving, and accepting human beings – 

human beings whose lineage has survived the atrocities
of the Middle Passage, slavery, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights,

a movement that gave birth to creative expressionism 
once seen as radical or as a terroristic threat – 

from fashion to soul food to the afro to cornrows 
to Jazz, The Blues, R&B, and Rap,

to the rhythmic way we shimmy our hips 
to the now infamous fist bump,

have all been hijacked, renamed, reinvented, 
and culturally misappropriated – 

just like our daughters’ mysterious disappearance at an
alarmingly high rate, yet the media outlets remain mute – 

mute on black bodies found dead with their organs missing; 
Henrietta’s immortal cells made our DNA strand priceless –  

just like our sons, profiled, then gunned down mafia-style
or locked up for unjust crimes and petty offences – 

offences waged against a powerfully potent strain;
	the one drop rule, yet ironically labeled inferior –

from the mop to the traffic signal to the super soaker
to the mathematics that put the first man in space,

calculated extremes to eradicate a race of innovators;
	yet the oppressor would cease to exist without Black Lives –


lives that far too many verbal and weaponized self-hating 
vigilantes from within our walls fail to understand 
the profundity of why Black Lives really do Matter.