“I Can’t Breathe” A Poem for George Floyd

Lori Shaull
https://www.flickr.com/photos/number7cloud/49943807607/
(CC BY-SA 2.0)

I’ve been trying to think about how I should respond to the murder of George Floyd. After all, what good does it really do to say that I’m angry about this and to declare racism is a sin. These things are true, but it’s all too easy to let it stop here, to feel like I’ve done my duty, box ticked, and now I can move on. I’m still not certain what the next steps are for me, how I go further. But for now, I offer to you this poem for George Floyd.


”I can’t Breathe”

As the nation continues to simmer and seethe
And our streets and hearts are set to burn,
All I know is that I can’t breathe.

Kneeling down to find relief,
I search their hearts for a hidden turn
As the nation continues to simmer and seethe.

They cannot see, they cannot believe
How these racial acts with violence churn,
And so I find that I can’t breathe.

They could not grant me one reprieve.
Instead they bound me to be burned,
As the nation continues to simmer and seethe.

”Father forgive them,” this I believe,
But why is it that they can’t learn
That I am here, that I can’t breathe.

And so they hang me from a tree,
Telling me this death I earned,
As the nation continues to simmer and seethe,
And I am gasping, I cannot breathe.