Helicopters in the air
Triggering my fears What's next comes the rubber bullets Piercing my body like they pierced Jesus Crying out for momma to behold thy son I can't breathe They don't even need guns
Castrate our bodies from the lynching trees
Cut off my lungs 10 minutes with his knees Crying out for momma I can't breathe
Hands in his pockets with a grin on his face
Resentment for my race as my life slips away
Cameras recording America don't care Black Lives Don't Matter Even when our murders are broadcast on air
Evidence before the judge and no convictions to be seen
Yellow tapes, chalk stains on the crime scenes
Blood stains cry out from these Trumpanian streets
Profit over people We don't care if they die Fuck COVID-19 Let the fittest survive Translate that to mean wealthy and the 1%
They say they cut us them checks Black and Brown folks still can't pay rent In the Food Bank line trying to make ends meet
Trying to make it to work but the curfew ends at nine
Can't catch the bus because Lori shut down the lines
Martin says a riot is the language of the unheard
This Pentecost Holy Ghost fire came down and cities burned
Maybe this is the new birth of the Church we wish to see
To get us out of them pews and into the streets
A nightmare of hashtags trending haunting me
Kendrick Lamar won't you sing for me Hear that base drop and I start to believe We gonna be alright even if we must die Claude McKay said let it be nobly done Fighting back For the generations to come
Lamentations Lift every voice to a rising sun
James Weldon Johnson declared victory is won
Cut off my lungs 10 minutes with his knees Crying out for momma I can't breathe...
Credit: Rev. Dr. Waltrina N. Middleton
Audio: Click here to listen to Rev. Dr. Middleton's reading of Pentecost: Prayers and Protest.