[Poem: Jessica Care Moore] Soldiers march inside my mouth Slide down my throat, crawl inside my womb And leave a hand grenadein my son's arms Pre-birth occupation. You wait for them to grow upand shoot us unarmed Dear black Madonna How many hail Mary's? Project holy water. bless these loads we carry. Pregnant with potential but birthing silence. Tears taste like violence Born with middle pa**age anxiety Why can't you feel the God in me? A million angels follow me Your system don't acknowledge me. Born free My prayer mat close to me I'm my ancestor's priority Which sound is closer to God's voice then children laughing? We the beautiful balancegoddess on my block A special kind of hell. Razors wrapped in feathers. Our bodies, wishing wells. We raise our daughters and pray our sonsjust make it home from school We need new rules Queens created out of red clay dust Pushed into cla**room terrorism. Girlhood rushed. Our black boys born kings You try to crucify em They built with steel and dreams Who's the criminal when the global blood is on your hands We indigenousthese streets been our land You not supposed to see d**hthis early in the morning If God is an American, then Godmust be lonely More k**ed by police in our cities Than Afghanistan The underestimated. Outliving our circumstance Some of us don't dance. Some of us got plans We don't smile for you. But our laugh is hard Our new religion includestearing down privatized prison bars Black birds fly far. I know who you are Your bravado. you a super star. The science of Imhotep With the heart of 'Pac We the onesthey couldn't k**. The chosen. We won't stop This is the time forhustlers and scholars Sunflowers and gun powder The lies just get louder. Shout out to the doubters She can write surahs and psalms In the same breath cook poems And write dinner with her left Rock a mic with her right And pray her own seeds will be able to Exchange the heavens for a mirror And see themselves as the greatestreflection of God