This gift of a breath doesn’t belong only to me
it’s the oxygen of a family, friends, a community.
This ocean breath rises, connects East out to West
A gentle zephyr stream, from Mali to Minneapolis,
this breath flows on renewed into cultures and songs
that call to you, yes you, too scared to belong!
Inca to Inuit, Arawak to Apache, Benin to Baltimore
this breath becomes a choir that must endure,
a breath rising unified, o sweet breath denied
by the blind disease of white, prejudiced pride.
George, we pledge you will not disappear in death,
this breath flows on in the struggles we weave,
with you we cry, ‘in this society we all cannot breathe,
while we stand, you will never draw your last breath!
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