Poetry 29/07/20

My name is Gabrielle, I am a fourteen year old, mixed raced girl from England, and poetry is my way of educating and speaking about causes I feel are important and need to be talked about.

Xx

The Kid

Music up loud

He's driving through the town

The windows ... down

Tupac's tunes filling the streets

The car shaking from the beats

But then there the sirens go

He looks in the mirror to see the po po

The sound echoes in his head

He knows the sound well and so he fled

Then he stops

As there are now multiple cops

Blocking his path

He knows it's no time to laugh

"Please sir I know I ran.."

"Keep your hands up" said the man

"But officer I'm not in the wrong!"

The car's radio was still playing Tupac's songs

"I only ran because I was scared..."

He was right he wasn't prepared

But he was surprised at what came next

A racial slur, like a bold in text

He didn't know what to do

He was ready to prance on this dude

But the guy had handcuffed his hands

There's no going back to get into his bands

The thing is stuff like this happens all the time

Expect some situations lives are on the line

People say that racism doesn't exist

But white cops in America don't resist

-Gabz

I Am Mixed

I'm aware I'm mixed

Living in a system that is pretty fixed

I am aware that I am not fully black

But should I feel offended by a racial attack?

I am aware that I am not fully white

But why does that mean the way I talk isn't right?

Does that mean that I am too dark Or too light?

I am aware that I am a mix

Of great battles and conflicts

A mix of greatness and gold

A story of freedom untold

But I am a mix of privilege and pain

Now we are fighting the same battle again.

A battle that has to be won

With one side pulling the trigger on the gun.

So you see I am confused at where I should stand

Which side of me should win the upper hand

Whether I should feel obliged to fight

Or stay quiet because I am 'half white'

But I shouldn't have to choose

There shouldn't be a win or a lose

We should all share the same views

And all be tired of hearing the same old news.

That another black man has died

At the hands of someone on the other side.

It is time to use the pain

As a chance to finally gain

The freedom we fought so hard for

The freedom, that needs to be restored.

Now back to the other half of me

The side that is already free,

We can fight in this battle too

Together we can prove the system is untrue

We can prove that it isn't fair

Black or white we all breathe the same air

Together we can unite

And win this awful, unfair fight.

So I am now, aware

That I am mixed with people who care,

And with a chance of change

The system, together, we can rearrange

So both sides of me are accepted

The way I am treated and my blackness

will be unconnected

And finally the whiteness in me

Will not be the only part that's free.

-Gabz

Thank you so much to Gabz for these beautiful words and powerful BLM photography. Go follow her insta accounts @_power.poems_ and @_photography_gabz for more.

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