The Crime

Our bodies mean nothing to you

Until we make you stand up and cheer

The names get lost in the archive

When you're searching for cases by year

And it's hard

To stay

Up to date

When every week there's a new slaying

Thrown in your face

Their excuses never stop

But we can narrow it to one

Guilty of looking like this

Could get you killed by a gun

Their excuses never stop

But we can narrow it to one

Guilty of looking like this

Could get you killed by a gun

The crime is the width of a nose

The crime is wrong place, wrong time

The crime is a hoodie in winter

The crime is failure to signal

The crime is being in your own home

The crime is minding your business

The crime is going for a run

The crime is assumed delinquent

Their understanding is astounding

Their empathy knows no end

When it's a copy of themselves, they're looking at

They find so many, so many

Ways to defend

The crime that we can't help but commit

Is the one that they most hate us for

A crime that I have no shame of

A part of me you can't help but abhor

I see no end to this song

I could revise, edit and add

Every time I turn on the news and see another

Brother, sister dead