Get your record expunged!
Re-entry Education Summit 10/20/14
Get your record expunged!
Charged in 88-year-old barber’s death
When witnesses come forward, they honor the victim and their community.
Babies In the Battlefield
Babies on the Battlefield
A war is ablaze within our midst destroying all that we hold dear
Bullets are flying everywhere, leaving imminent death and tears
Little casualties are unaware that they are caught in the quagmire
They have no captain to lead them and no guns with which to return fire
The casualties of this war are many – there are no bullet-proof shields
There is a clear and present danger for our babies on the battlefield
Not fully grown and yet their lives are diminished much too soon
Because of cowards who hide behind guns – full of anger all consuming
To them life has no meaning – they just aim and pull the trigger
When they miss their target, an innocent life goes out with a final flicker
Their assassins’ hearts are cold—with souls devoid of the capacity to feel
And then we are left with the lifeless bodies of our babies on the battlefield
After all, selling dope and making money is the most important thing
Shootouts to guard posse and turf outweighs the decimation they bring
They build empires off the flesh and blood of our dying communities
Then spend all the money and die without leaving an enduring legacy
The pain they cause just to prove affiliation to a group of spineless cowards
So weak minded they lack the mettle to fight without guns and crowds
Our children pay the ultimate price – they did not chose this life
But for gangs, drugs, and money, they get to pay the ultimate price
Our brave soldiers are sent overseas to fight for other lands’ rights to be free
But here at home the war intensifies and cowards are claiming our babies
Terrorism runs rampant and no one seems to be doing anything
People continue to die as dope lords become their puppet kings
Multimillion-dollar prisons are erected to fight the ‘war on drugs’
Instead of using it for education and preventing kids from becoming thugs
Who, then breed more generations of children who kill to achieve ‘juice’ status
As they slaughter each other on barren fields warring against enemy factions
Communities are held hostage because no one wants to be labeled a squealer
But they blame law enforcement because they can’t catch the killers and dealers
The tragedy of individual apathy is the reason our children are dying daily
Slamming doors to law enforcement only allows crime to thrive and prevail
The rate at which our babies perish is painfully surreal
Our own black men are killing babies on the battlefield
This plight will end when we stop pretending the solution is not in our hands
So stand up tall and make the call that will heal our bleeding lands
Communities will become strong, violence ends, and we can begin to heal
And no longer will our babies perish on the battlefield
©2012 Kim Rosemon-Woods
All rights reserved
Who Will Speak
Who will speak?
Who will speak for the tears that fall without a voice–
Grieving laughter, and kisses—without heartbeats or choices?
Who will speak when anguish walks among the broken shards of yesterday–
Leaving seed that death cultivated by bullet or, one whose lodestar has violently faded?
Who will speak for Jasmine Curry, Marcel Pearson, Bruce Wright, William Allen, Tonya Gunn, Joey Henderson, Jaynisha Scheffer, Cassius White?
Who speaks now?
Who speaks now when blood indiscriminately hews burrows into the soul of the city?
The silence is a sonic boom reverberating through the pain of the fallen
For their lives were just yesterday’s news—chains broken forever rippling throughout mankind
Who speaks now?
Who will speak for Robert Cotton, Anthony Hobson, Kezon Lamb, Donald Ray, Schiquille Slater, Joel Bentley, Deandre Brown, Shaquille Ross, Corey Hudson, Shambreyh Barfield?
Hugs that will never again be felt, a helping hand that will never be shared, and a calling never to be fulfilled
Every life touches a life
Links shattered in life’s chain and their absence will never be replaced
Who will speak?
Who will speak for the nameless and faceless ones whose names escape us when the channel turns?
Who. Will. Speak for Dakari Pargo, Jimero Starling, Lafayette Walton, Michael Patton, Ronnie Amos, Alfred Barnett, Tony Ervin, Albert Glover, Eddie Jones, Sonny Ortiz, Sharon Bonds, Andre Knight?
Who will speak for them as we fluff our pillow and be thankful it wasn’t our mother, father, son, or daughter?
Who will speak for Ovadiyah Chandler, Christopher Jones, Stanley Levy, Dekarlos Scott, Taurus Williams, Demarcus Boswell, Daniel Jones, Maurice Wooden, Brandon Peterson, Louis Winn, Dewey Knox, Damian Williams, Brett Ewing, Paris Brown, LaQuisha Hickman, Nykole Loving, Kennyone Pendelton ?
Who will speak?
As the wind braces for impact as bullets rape its peace—unable to shield the lung, the artery, or the brain from penetration?
Who speaks in order to quell the anger and savagery as it claims that which is more precious than diamonds?
Who will speak for, Brian Weekly, Carnesha Fort, Alante Vallejo, Derrick Bowens, Ronald Holliman, Darrien Jordan, David M. Hernandez, Denero Appleton, Eric Kall, DeAngelo Russell, Donald Williams, Nicholas Keener, McArthur Swindle?
Who will speak?
Who will speak with action that rails against the lies that say wrong place- wrong time?
Place being where they are at a moment. Wrong place their home? Wrong place their school? Wrong place the playground? Oh no, maybe it’s the walk to the store, or sitting in a car?
Yes, wrong place is any place…
Whose wrong place? Charles D. Short’s? Betty Howard’s? Craig Mitchell’s? Malcolm Stuckey’s? Paul Pyron’s? Vincent Simmons’? Lance Stanton’s? Monte Tillman’s? Arron Feazell’s? Dashawn Johnson’s? Corteze Reed’s?
Or Time defined as “the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future. Wrong time at noon? Wrong time at 3pm? Wrong time at 11pm? 6am?
Of course, wrong time is any time…
Whose wrong time? Maurice Paschal’s? Kevin Diaz’s? Brian McKinney’s? Robert Waldon’s? Lewis Jenkins’s? Juwan Williams’? Leonard Goldman’s? Kayshaun Hall’s, Ashley Mendoza’s? Kendall Floyd’s? Charles Lee’s? Aaron Rushing’s?
As we contemplate the significance of time and place, faces are passing away. For-e-ver.
Who will speak?
As the footfalls of terror march down our streets?
Or for those whom the blotter calls reciting names as the dead man falls.
As the media portrays us as one to be mistrusted after all, we are but animals in this world.
Some sold drugs, others gang-banged, some raised hell with every breath,
There’s also the straight A students, babies, grandparents— mix them all together—it doesn’t really matter
They – like we—are ALL blood, bone, flesh and spirit. Life interrupted
No longer among us
Who will speak for Gabriel Rios, Victoria McManus, Vaughn Holeman, Cesar Nieves, Xavier Tripp, Summer Moore, William Lomax, Chasteddy Blocker, Jajuan Porter, Gerald Calhoun, William Bailey, Terrance McNeal, Jabari Davis,
Because their loss is our failure as a civilized existence
They die as we exhort “not this neighborhood”; “they deserve it”; “it’s not my problem”
As we turn our backs on a dying generation
Our children run for cover from indiscriminate munitions
That rain down upon them, etching their name as it meets its mark
Who will speak?
Who will speak for the hundreds lost in this city
As we cover our ears from the screams of the crying and dying
Who will speak for them? Rickey Hayes, Antonio Mendez, Jeromy Ellis
After their eyes glass over and consciousness forever cascades to black
The Windy City, Chi-Town- Chiraq is a new moniker spoken with irony and fear
Its violent heart pulsating in tandem with its namesake across the Atlantic
Decimating all in its wake
ChiRaq, ChiRaq, Chiraq
Who will speak?
Who will speak for the tears that fall without a voice–
Grieving laughter, and kisses—without heartbeats or choices?
They matter because we matter.
Who will speak?
Kim Rosemon Woods
©2014 All rights reserved
Who Will Speak 