Do You Hear What I Hear?

*Pop* *Pop* *Pop*

Do you hear what I hear? It’s the sound of another black boy
Being shot down
Boy for he is no longer a man / Black because that is all the officer sees
All he sees

Do you hear that?
It’s the sound of police dogs barking
The sound of grandparents marching
Marching so we don’t have to / Marching so we won’t have to
Go through / Their suffering

Do you hear what I hear?
It’s the sound of Jim Crow’s cowls / As he dances across the stage
Prances through the oppression / Black faced impression
Of the longest winters/ Dimmest summers
Picking cotton / Stacking lumber

Do you hear that?
The chains holding me back / The has set sail
Carrying with it / A different kind of mail
A new breed / In high demand
Fulfill the “need” / Well, that’s the plan

So tell me this / I want to know
Of all the lies / Spread high and low
Tell me when did dark become synonymous with lacking
When did the level of black become the level of beauty

When did light become the judge/ and darkness the damned
The ultimate battle / lion vs. lamb

A battle of the centuries / of a time we never wished to see
But where did it all begin / And hast it no end
For all I see is battle / Blood upon the streets
For all I mourning / Can’t we live in harmony

When the paper bag is the final judge
No darkness left to smudge
This “perfect” image of what is right
Well maybe I’ll just be wrong
Because in a world where being right comes with a price
Maybe being wrong is the only way I can survive
Or maybe / I’m just not cut out for this life

So I leave / With this final prayer tonight
I am free in my darkness/ hidden in the light
Oh, officer please
Don’t shoot me tonight

My performance of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm-LjrF4wWU

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