Laid back or laziness

                                          A laid-back life is like a breeze that moves the willow tree, It keeps you calm and gives you room to breathe and just be free. But laziness is like a fog that keeps you in your bed, It takes away the open road and leaves a cloud instead. The peaceful mind enjoys the sun and watches clouds roll past, It knows just when to take a break and when to move at last. The lazy heart forgets to plant the seeds that make us grow, And misses out on all the joy that busy people know. One is a choice to slow things down and let your spirit rest, To look around at what you have and feel that you are blest. The other is a heavy heavy weight that holds your feet in place, And keeps you from the happy path and finishes the race. So rest your bones beneath the shade when all your work is through, But do not let the sleepy dust take over all...
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"I Can't Breathe"

I am on the ground

A man on my chest 

Another knee on my neck

Hemmed between tar and stone, and heavy bodies of my fellow men

How can I breathe


A few breaths I need

I try to speak

A breath of air is sought

Alas, dust from the ground, I welcome

My voice not heard

The pressure remains

Oppressively horrifying, to say the least


A breath of air still me eludes

Bystanders notice, the air I need

The blue and black, duty to care remiss

I continue to say “I can’t breathe”

Still he hears me not

Murder in public, repercussions not one, by those who swore to protect

Barbarism on display

Lynching days are back?

Humanity is gone?

Where art thou empathy?

Now I begin to cry, my mother I call


What am I?

Who am I?

A light to be extinguished?

A life to be snuffed? 

A person to be feared and executed on sight?

My body becomes limp

Another black and brown, dust becomes

When will this cycle end?


What became the promise to “protect and serve”

Innocent until proven guilty, a jury of my peers?

Dignity and liberty for all I was told, I guess the preserve of blonde and blue?

Are “all men created equal”?

Lip service at best


At this I pause, for I need to think, my heart aches with sadness, my eyes well up with tears

I should be worth more, life should be sacred

Dogs and cats, more goodwill than black and brown? Horses and all manner of beasts?

I shudder to wonder

My body in spasm


A social contract is severed, not for the first and terrified to say the last

Instant fatal justice lay in wait, for black and brown, offense of no consequence

Justice a right for most, a privilege to a few

Oh my, surely this is not America, "land of the free"? "Home of the brave?"


"All lives matter" and should matter! But some more than most it emerges

A big animal farm we have

Impunity is all

I still "can't breathe"

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