R D Flynn-Webb
Sep 9, 2018 · 1 min read

I Am Here As Witness…

(for Sam McKenzie, Jr. — a hastily written poem for an enlightened soul)

I am here as witness

to generations of bystanders

comfortable in their complacency

who see the truth

who hear the wails

and hide in their homes

allowing the darkness that covers this land.


Who’s ancestors stood on these shores,

unequivocally declaring “Mine!”

Swept their humanity under Plymouth’s Rock

Seized and murdered as Divine Provenance

Slept in jeweled chambers as slaves starved

Terrorized and brutalized to silence them

Turned their murders into picnics

Made postcards celebrating a Day at the Lynching

pics of Men, Women, and Children

swinging from the poplar trees.


These generations

with blood-stained hands

have joisted the sickness through hiding the truth,

with silent smirks from the luxury of privilege

preached from the pulpits of Christianity

strengthening their belief that

Whiteness is God’s Way.

Jesus was a Black Man.

Jesus was a Jew.


In a land where power brutalizes,

uses bullets as genocide

You bring shame and misery to a nation,

because inaction means death

and silence means approval

you know this

You are not powerless

far from it.

R D Flynn-Webb

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