Seventeen – In Memory of Trayvon Martin

Seventeen

 
What did you dream of?
What wonderful things did you imagine?
So young, so hopeful
Innocent still in the ways
of the wicked world you lived in
The opportunities at your feet
were just waiting for you to take the first step
Your family and friends beside you
Supporting you
on the way to adulthood

But your future was stolen
By a gun-toting, self-anointed
savior of peaceful communities
“How dare you be black in my neighborhood
and wear a hoodie?”, thought he
“Stop!”, he said, as you reached in your pocket
for your Skittles candy
You fought back the monster with your hands
but he killed you and just like that,
you were gone from this world

A silenced teenager with no ID
and no one to tell your story
A John Doe lying in the morgue
while parents agonized
over where you were
He let you lay bleeding to death
Because he wanted to
He wanted someone, anyone
that night
He was mighty whitey
and he decided it was ok
He robbed you of your life
and your mother of her son

Today, February 5th
you should have been
celebrating your 26th birthday
What would you have been?
A doctor, a lawyer, a husband,
a father, a friend.
We will never know because
an armed neighborhood watch coordinator
killed you claiming protection under
the Florida law, Stand Your Ground,
and got away with your murder

 
Copyright © 2021 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved
 
In memory of Trayvon Martin
February 5, 1995 - February 26, 2012
Aged 17
Murdered in Sanford, Florida while walking to his mother’s house in a gated community, by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, . 

Rest in Peace
 
#Black Lives Matter

Word Prompts

Silence - RDP
Tell - FOWC

Wiki - The Shooting of Trayvon Martin