Eternal Reflection Interlude

[Poem: Jessica Care Moore] Soldiers march inside my mouth  Slide down my throat, crawl inside my womb And leave a hand grenade in my son's arms Pre-birth occupation.  You wait for them to grow up and  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 passage 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 balance goddess on my block A special kind of hell.  Razors wrapped in feathers.   Our bodies, wishing wells.  We raise our daughters and pray our sons just make it home from school We need new rules Queens created out of red clay dust  Pushed into classroom 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 indigenous these streets been our land You not supposed to see death this early in the morning  If God is an American, then God must be lonely More killed 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 includes tearing 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 ones they couldn't kill.   The chosen. We  won't stop This is the time for hustlers 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 greatest reflection of God