Page 149 - COVID Consortium Journal - An Edited Collection of Student Art and Writing

Kaila Nelpris-Gross,
Urban Academy High School

They say the revolution will not be televised,
But is that the truth?
When I turn on my tv,
I see protests and tear gas and rubber bullets being fired
From a line of defense,
I see kids getting tear-gassed,
Maced
Shot.
All for standing up for the basic human right
To exist in this country.
People are standing because kneeling didn’t work.
People are climbing on top of the system, and setting it ablaze.
They wave flags of hope
And equality,
Putting the same fists up that they used to punch us to the ground
as a way of saying f*** you to
The oppressors.
But what’s this?
The headline says “cops under attack”
Even though all I see is them
Firing poison gas that was so inhumane,
It was outlawed in wars.
Shows that they value the people who invade countries
And kill people,
More than its own citizens.
They aren’t the revolution.
The revolution isn’t scared cops hiding behind big plastic shields,
Scared that their rights to bully
The people they “protect”
Is in getting stripped away.
The revolution is the little kids,
Holding up their hands yelling don’t shoot,
The little Black kids who live.

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