Caught Between a Racial Watershed and a Powder Keg Moment

I keep hearing about watershed

Moments

Are we misreading the times

If a watershed is a turning point

Then

We have turned ourselves

Over

And

Over

And

Over

Until

We

Are sick

Of death

And burning

To

Live

 

I do not feel any water

I smell the smoke

I sense the multitudes

Nauseous from riding the social waves

Movement waves

Protest waves

And just when we think the tide has come in

The sea waves its finger

Telling us

Not so fast

Leaving emptiness and devastation

Washed up generational dreams

That’s a watershed moment for you

 

Watershed

After

Watershed

After watershed

Brown bodies cling to driftwood

And call it

Hope

Tolerating

The promises

Forgiving

The lies

Playing

The games

Choking from

The politics

Something ain’t right

 

I have this feeling

Deep in the pit of my stomach

I want to ignore

The kind of feeling

A doctor can’t diagnose

And momma can’t name

Have we been this way before

But the moment seems different

This time

I can hear

The ancestors singing

No more water

But fire next time

 

But the experts

Talk about

Watershed moments

And something just ain’t right

The heat has intensified

The social climate has changed

And when this fire has been kindled

What will it reveal

Will it refine

Will it destroy

Will it cleanse

 

The lifeless Brown bodies

Left on racist and classist altars

Are not acceptable

Sacrifices

Do you see the eyes opening

In realizing that God is not White

That White is not the supreme being

The essence of life

We are our saviors

Walking on water

Calling down fire from

Heavenly darkness

 

Black lives lost

Have turned tears

To wildfires

What do you expect

To happen

When we have cried until

We are a walking drought

Unrecognizable

From a long life lived early

What do you expect

After centuries of

Mourning

Pleading

Striving

Digging

Wells into barren hearts

With no mercy

No empathy

For Blackness

 

It feels more like a powder keg

Moment

And I wonder

If we have come to this point

Or is there another way

Must we push

And push

Until we topple the world over the edge

Must we allow the explosion

Do we need to let it all out

Get it all out

To finally deal with

What has been

Long

Ignored

 

Powder keg

Danger to the old ways

Still fighting to hold on

While the voices of Black martyrs

Weep from beyond

No more water

But fire next time

 

And after the flames have died

Shall we behold

A new heaven

A new earth

A resurrection of humanity