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The American Facade
How much is a life worth?
Under rolling tides of fear in white washed waters
Sleeping in chains of barbed wire, is this where my freedom lies?
In these cardboard houses, torn to flame by sinister words of rage?
These blank bullets shot at brothers, despite heart, despite age?
Their deaths a cause and effect of unavailing thoughts and prayers
Their only crime is gripping hands with night skies in despair
Maybe it's here, in this soil, by Death's ankles have we toiled
Our souls sculpting the American foundation
To embrace our skin as black as ink
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I was inspired to write this poem after viewing a play by James Baldwin, and then viewing a documentary about his life and work called "I Am Not Your Negro". This was during February, and I saw that Teen Ink's Black History Month "Love Issue" was having a poetry contest where it was necessary to use the word Ink. I wanted to portray the hardships that African-Americans have dealt with over the color of their skin throughout history, especially when forced against the forces of racial discrimination in all forms.