many of us are social media
peeping
seeking
seething
we scroll to see if there is a blip on your screen
that interrupts cat videos, date night pics, HRC debates,
your lush garden with tomatoes you didn’t know could grow that
large
like a tumor, malignant
the same one churning inside America
threatening to poison us from the inside out
and then burst
splattered everywhere
with its seeds going back into soil
that you nurture

you didn’t notice
or were too
sad
confused
ignorant
preoccupied
disconnected
busy all lives mattering or
black on black crime troping
or just too afraid
to speak
comment
hold yours accountable
about
the very thing that has been before you the entire time
we peek in to check your status to see if your silence
your complicity
our invisibility
is still there

it is

it hurts
just like the racism
that is killing us
for sure

Tina Fakhrid-Deen

#altonsterling #philandocastile