Lessons at Gunpoint

When cops have guns drawn
and give you conflicting orders like
'hands in the air' and 'grab your license'
or 'don't move' and 'shut off the car'
it's cause they want to shoot you.

When they yell 'GUN'
and you have nothing in your hands but your blackness
and they have an instrument of death,
it's because they want to kill you.

When cops work themselves up into a panic frenzy,
shaking and screaming at you while you are completely unarmed
it's because they are pumping themselves up to commit murder.

They will get away with it.
Camera or no camera.
So don't move.
They still might shoot you,
but you have to resist all your natural instincts
 Resist the urge to run or shake or scream.
And that's what it is like to live.

You have to resist your nature
to flee/fight/move to be Black in America.
After they've beaten/arrested/tortured/killed
and suffocated your instincts, they'll call you an animal.
And the proof is in your existence
b/c no human would live under these conditions.
In order to survive, you strangled your humanity.
You became something else.