"The World is a Corner Bully"

While reading the following words from Ta-Nehisi Coates, I was inspired to write a few words of my own.

“From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully. Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain.”

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Queen of the World

If I were queen of the world for a day, here’s how I’d set the tone.

I’d grant education to every child and the gifts of perseverance and consistency to the full grown.

I’d grant financial literacy and stability to every boy and every girl.

There’d be no mega rich and no more billionaires in this world.

We’d each eat what we grow and sow, and every person would own ample land.

We’d live right where we own and survive by the works of our own hands.

If I were queen for a day, pro-life would mean we valued the existence of all.

That means the poor, infirm, the immigrant, the veteran, trans, queer, large and small.

All would truly mean all.

If I were queen of the world for a day, we’d stop bowing to the privileged while out-taxing everyone else to death.

The tired and depressed would receive unlimited rest. And no one would pay a bill for good health.

Oh yes, what a world this would be.

If I were queen for a day, the land of the free would actually be a reality.

Black and Free in America

We’re murdered when we whistle.

We’re murdered when we buy Skittles.

We’re slaughtered for doing too much.

We’re slaughtered for doing too little.

We keep trying to live, but continue to die.

We can’t survive the truth.

We can’t live with the lies.

We have little to no rights.

We have innumerable fights.

We are tied together, yet so far apart.

We are a billion souls with a billion broken hearts.

You can’t help me, and I can’t help you.

You are my brother, and I your sister, but we are both doomed.

We are suspect, because we are Black.

It has been over 400 years, yet our skin is still under attack.

Medgar, Malcolm, Martin, Fred, Trayvon, Tamir, Eric, Philando, Sandra and George…didn’t live to see it.

And we’re still alive here, struggling to be it…

Black and free in America!