thoughts & prayers

so it happened again
day forty-five
super tragedy number twenty-nine
and your best plan to heal
my traumatized soul is to use
the power of your mind
and think yourself helping

my friend

your thoughts have never fed me
they’ve only failed me
they’ve never staunched the bleeding
never stopped the wound from festering
never wrote policy to protect me
or rehabilitated my enemy
to suck the joy out of killing

and now it’s time to pray

you change the border on your profile pic
donate coins to problematic entities
who refuse to release the monies
to the people in need
you collect expired cans and boxes and
nonperishable goods
to distribute to people
that you blame for the state of their neighborhoods
ignoring your complicity
in the erroneous belief system of supremacy
crying “why does this keep happening?”
as you steal from the poor
beware
the day is coming
when we won’t take it anymore

Sumayyah Talibah 15 February 2018