I am black.
I am living.
I am jogging.
I am breathing.
I am threatened.
I am frightened.
I am fighting.
I am surviving.
I am standing.
I am shot.
I am bleeding.
I am weakening.
I am falling.
I am down.
I am gasping.
I am hurting.
I am gone.
I am still.
I was.
We are Ahmaud.
We are running.
We are remembering.
We are protesting.
We are standing.
We are not surprised,
Yet, we will be relenting,
Refusing the silencing,
Justice that needs serving,
Not wincing from fighting,
For the endless oppressing,
Of a color and creed that keeps rising,
Like the woke sun that will not stop shining,
A light of hope and the strength to keep standing,
For this nation is liberated and no, they aren’t going,
So remember them and remember their name,
For we are one and we are the same,
Born with a heart and brain,
And we would do the same,
Stand with us and demand it for all,
We want justice, we want justice for all,
For the ones running and the ones choking,
The people, and the youth and the kids and all,
Because black lives matter and that’s not all,
Black lives walk and run and love and stand tall,
And every black life taken just strengthens the resolve,
That we are all Ahmaud and Ahmaud is us all.
Be shaken.
Be awakened.
Be brave.
Feel outrage,
And don’t forget to say his name.
-Tumkeen
Tumkeen, Writer+Poet 