TEN (feat. Jewchelle Brown)

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Candace Nicholas-Lippman

6:50

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Hold your breath for ten minutes
It's impossible to do it

You would need to have
The lung capacity of a fish
Which unfortunately
George Floyd
Didn't

Ten minutes
The time you may spend
Waiting in line
For your Starbucks fix

Ten minutes
The time it may take you
To fix your children breakfast

Ten minutes
The first way you spend it
Checking instagram
And posting
A new tiktok challenge

Ten minutes
To check emails
And make phone calls
Text your boo thang
Good morning
With heart-eyed emojis

Ten minutes
To take that new quarantine selfie
With the overly used caption
What month are we in

Ten minutes
To take a walk in central park
And marvel at God's creation
But then
To be approached
By yet
Another Karen
Who forgot
That as a child
We were taught
To not make up stories
And lies
Just because
You're white

Ten minutes
Or less than
To come to the conclusion
That this
Black or brown person
Must be dangerous
They are a certified criminal
Can't you see their skin color
Hold your purse tight
And lock your doors
They are prone
To breaking and entering
You see that
In their hand
That's not a cell phone
Black and browns
Can't afford one of those
That is for sure a weapon

Ten minutes
To walk
To the convenience store
To satisfy your sweet tooth
Oh no
Blacks don't eat skittles
He must be an intruder
As he intrudes
Upon the sidewalk
With a light jog
Cause you know
Black people
Shouldn't exercise

Ten minutes
It takes
To plant evidence
Falsify reports
And bribe witnesses
Imagine all the lives
That've been taken
Where there was no
Camera recording

Ten minutes
And a lifetime
It took
For that white devil
To admit
That sweet baby boy
Emmett Till
Never did nothing

Ten minutes
To be pulled over
For a tail light infraction
Gunned down in the middle of an intersection
Tazed, maced and water hosed
Executed while playing
Video games with nephew
Followed around the store
Cause whatever
I'm stealing
Will somehow
Fit within my afro

Ten minutes
To cut a high schoolers dreads
In the middle of a wrestling match
Or expel young girls
For rocking
Protective styles

Ten minutes
To reconsider
Procreating
How I can bring
A beautifully brown child
Into a world
Where the very moment
They are born
They've already
Been issued a death warrant

Ten minutes
Of hashtags
And headlines
Black Lives Matter chants
And screams
Of  say their names
Which will soon
Be washed over
By the next twerk video
Gone viral

Ten minutes
It would take
For my privileged
White friends
Who call themselves
Allies
To use their
Falsely believed
Superiority
And speak up for minorities

Ten minutes
To call upon my ancestors
Whose blood lives within this American soil
To pray to my God
Whose blood saved the world
Who will cry for the little boy
Antoine Fisher
Eric Gardner
Kalief Browder
I am angry like Malcom
Compassionate like Martin
Fired up like Nina Simone
Mississippi Goddam!

Ten minutes
I cry out
I can't breathe
Mama
Mama
Can you hear me
Officer
I can't breathe

Whatever you do within the next ten minutes
I want you to think of George

He was a father, a lover
A son, a human
And in just ten minutes
They took his existence
In ten minutes
Ten

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