I thought i was gonna die last night

I looked at his face and memorized every feature

His loving blue eyes and the light that recently left

The small smile on his face that he mustered up to tell me i’m pretty

I thought i was gonna die last night

I cried in his arms, feeling his caring breath inhale and exhale

And his heart beat that's so clearly tired.

I thought about his tears that would leave the eyes where the forest meets the sea

All because of my departure

But made him think the ocean that left my eyes was because of his

I just have to go to bed

I just have to go to bed

I repeated out loud to the both of us

As the over-the-counter death taunted me from our medicine cabinet

I thought i was gonna die last night

But i just went to bed

I just went to bed

I thought i was gonna die last night

But i just went to bed.

We slither and slide and sink and slam and

Hurt ourselves then don’t understand

We pop and we jug and we dis and we dat

And we can’t understand why we jump like that

You dis me so I kill you

I dis you so you kill me

We all do dis and we all sweat flack

We black on black like yellow on black

chorus:

at each other--it’s a fact

on our brothers--it’s a fact

fail our mothers--it’s a fact

to each other--that’s that

Black on black is the darker track

We gotta be up to cover our back

We brace our back and take up the slack

To back the attack--it’s a fact.

White man freed the slaves, so what?

Put us in the autoclave, so what?

We hold our brothers back, that’s us!

Ridin’ shotgun in the back of the bus.

chorus:

Red on black--venom lack--it’s a fact

Yellow on black--watch your back--it’s a fact

Black on yellow--kill a fellow--it’s a fact

Black on black, blood-curdling howl of racial feedback

--it’s a fact

I think I’m crazy,

always misinterpreting

the silence of snow.

<>

Mine’s only ten words but it is a haiku. I’m putting this here because it’s supposed to be at least 15.

Hands still; face blank, pale,

I am opening again,

Naked as the moon.

J.M.Liles ©️2025

I was born to live

And I lived to love the die

Such, was born to die

Birthed forth to live, I

Burst for, and by, chance till I

Berthed me in to die

Placed life on the line

Doubled down and threw my bones

All to win more time

Life is a crapshoot

"You win some and you lose some..."

Until you crap out