Photo by Brett Sayles: https://www.pexels.com/photo/slogan-black-lives-matter-on-black-board-4665903/
In this poem, I’m going to ask you a question, but I don’t want you to answer right away. Take a moment. Because your instinct will be reflexive. Protective. You may not want to look a certain way. You may think you completely know your heart. Just breathe.
This piece moves between our big world and the small details of our personal lives. It asks us to consider our position within broken systems. To consider how we respond as the culture changes. I assure you, this reflection is happening within us all, no matter the ethnicity or community.
I don’t ask the question for you to feel shame, no matter where you find yourself in the writing. Instead, I want you to consider value. What do you value? Where have you placed value? Whom do you value?
I think it will be that pause. That breath. That moment when you consider what I am asking that will help determine your next step. Hopefully, it’s a step towards peace.
Do I Matter?
Since the Minnesota concrete received the final choking gasps of a handcuffed man
I’ve been receiving private messages
About “being seen”
From people who haven’t really seen me for a long time
I wonder
What is the space I occupy in your mind?
What absolution are you trying to find?
Does saying that I matter out loud benefit your heart or mine?
It’s conflicting
You fix your courage to say that I matter
And it is no small feat
But your voice a spotlight to this mixed, privileged
Educated, light(er) skinned man
From a Canadian family
Rooted in European tradition
Fluent in the language of the majority
Friendly, approachable and non-threaten-
I mean,
Rarely angry
Yes I matter
But sometimes I think it’s easier for you to like me
Than my darker skinned Brothers and Sisters
Those who refuse the language of colonizer
Those who challenge whom your system serves
Those whose anger draws your fear
But I am also angry
Racism makes me angry
But so does discord
So does strained communication
So does the pride that prevents us from listening to one another
We all want to be seen
We all want to be heard
We all want to matter
But do I matter?
Do I matter to you?
Then abandon your social scrambling
Renounce your fight for resources
Refuse to call this war
Because if it is, we are all losing
Losing the joy of honouring one another as precious siblings
Losing the love found in bestowing dignity
Losing the greatness awaiting us if we would only choose to walk arm in arm
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Amplify / Outcry deluxe digital maxi-single dropping Friday November 4