Skeletons Poem by sydney conteh

It is said
The world does not a cruel world understand black pain
Broken bones concealed, with hand-carved smiles
Cuts covered constantly continuing
To bleed, but the world will
Protest the scarlet tears
We allow to fall to the ground

When the US government called
The African American population to
Fight in the Vietnam war
Posters said
"Get in the game, with uncle sam"
Forgetting Uncle Sam
Spat acid words full of lashes
Called it, the Tuskegee experiment
Uncle Sam, sent black lives to perish
Guilt-free
Hands accustomed to being a red hue


When I got called an oreo
I cried tears that only manifested themselves years later
To hold them I wore
More than a smile, I disguised my skin
To fit in, so that
If tears leaked out, they would not show
On whitewashed skin

Dark skin cries every day
We just cry in ways you will never see
You are seeing rivers of tears now
Look at the TV, protests resembling raging rivers of
Collected pain but
There are still things you will never see

Look how black students struggle not to
Bring their camo gear, every time they go to school
As showing too much blackness
Is similar to disturbing the peace
As teaching black history properly
Is akin to arming black students with
Pride, that's something the world is scared of

As a proud black person changes the world
Doreen Lawrence
Afua Hirsh
Olive Morris
Changed the world, yet the world
will never talk about them
As the royalty they are

I know this is a radical black poem
I have not cried in a long time
so I do not apologize for my poetic tears
As they have been held back too long
So take my ocean of pain
Let it flood your existence

You feel like you're drowning
Now you know how it feels like to be black
Drowning in a world that is
Only now trying to, drain the anguish
They caused
I wonder what the world will say
When it sees, an ocean bed of
Skeletons, of people who drowned long ago
Honestly, I do not know

All I hope is this
This world takes all
The bones make a hero statue
To celebrate the fallen black heroes
Maybe, that will earn forgiveness
For the pain the world caused