“Dead Bones Rise Up” by Katia Laurent-Joseph

In my dream, I saw millions of black men and women’s dried dead bones
Bone to bone, mourning and crying for justice;
Bone to bone, seeking to breathe again
under the Transatlantic sea, and shackled in the land of the free.

In my dream, I saw shadows of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Atiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd…
haunting them in resurrection journey ;
in unison, those dried dead bones cry out:
If we can breathe again, it won’t be with our faces kissing the ground.
If we must cry again, it won’t be in vain.
If we must die again, it will be a glorious death.

If we shall live again, justice shall rise;
our people shall stand.
They will breathe.
They will walk.
They will exist.
They will have peace;
peace in their homeland,
peace in the system.

Oh dried bones, awake and speak,
so your people, our people can
Run with peace;
Walk in peace;
Drive in peace;
Sleep in peace.

Dried bones, if you must die again,
We must breathe, we must breathe, we must breathe.
Bone to bone, rise up!