Justice Manifesto

By Mushroom Montoya

 

We walked my city streets

While wishing to hold hands,

While wearing our masks,

While We screamed for justice

Wishing to be loud enough and

Wishing to be courageous enough,

Begging, pleading, demanding, to be heard

 

Enough

To make Wall Street, the lawmakers, our Trumpster neighbors see

Corrections, additions, deletions, and major adjustments

Must be made,

For their benefit

As well as ours.

 

We won't tolerate

Any more lip service,

They should know

An ounce of Prevention

Is worth a pound of Cure

 

Our current cures

Of overcrowded jails,

Of Expensive Military weapons

for local police,

Of no accountability for the men in blue,

Have only made matters worse.

 

We demand

No more free passes

To those who wear the blue and the badge,

No more accepting they were resisting arrest,

No more accepting, I thought he had a gun,

No more accepting knees on the necks,

No more accepting the Police Brotherhood

with their white hoods

Hidden in their lockers.

The cure has never been

Building more new jails.

 

We demand

No more excuses for lack of funding for schools,

No more excuses for lack of funding for parks and

Recreation,

No more excuses for lack of funding for social programs,

No more excuses for poverty level minimum wage,

No more, no more, no more.

We demand action now, today.

We demand accountability at every level.

We demand transparency.

We demand a just place to live,

And play, and thrive in community

Without fear of our own men in blue.

 Included in the anthology, Los Angeles Poets for Justice