I Can Breathe

Tis our God-given right

Color is for the flowers and the trees 

Color is for the birds and the fish

Color is for the animals running wild and free

Color is for the buses, color is for the clothes

Color is for the skies and the seas

Color is for the sun and the stars 

Color is for the seasons; color is for the paintings

Color is for the words

There is color in this world 

An ocean of endless beauty to see

Telling stories that words have tried to paint and failed

Inspiring men to songs and to words

But we are not buses

We are not fish

We are not flowers 

Whose beauty is judged by the eye

We are men

our color lies deep beneath the surface.

Our color is not on our skin 

Our color is in our bones

Our color is in our deeds 

Our color is in our hearts

Our color is in our words

My skin is black 

But in my heart, I am much more 

I too am white; I too am Asian 

I too am Latino

We ought to love all the same

To many, a black man was killed 

To me, a man was killed 

To many, injustice was shown to a people 

To me, injustice was shown to us all

Our essence reaches far beyond color and race

For in our hands is the power to change the narrative

We are angry that a man took another's life

May his life not have gone in vain

I can’t breathe were his words

I can only imagine what good he still had to do in this world 

The many souls he could have blessed 

A thousand dreams he could have lived 

Gone in a moment

These are the simple things that unite us

Breath, love, hope.

I pray that the day never comes 

when men lose faith in men. 

That a thing like this may never happen again 

That we'll see the richness of color within

If all the beauty of this world 

Couldn't take my breath away, 

Gave me life instead, 

Then no one can.

I am black and proud

Unapologetically so

Like the birds,

I am free to be.

I can breathe.