The Venom in my Veins









Part 3: Processing This Week- May 29, 2020 

(If you haven't I encourage you to read Part 1 as well)

You have to know this shit takes its toll

On our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls

It’s like a venom that lives inside my veins 

That pours forth every time we have to utter a new name 

It’s the venom that makes my heart skip a beat

When I’m driving down the street and I cop I do meet


Its vicarious trauma that courses through my veins 

That is slowly killing me and driving me insane

It’s like these tiny pinpricks that crawls slowly along my skin 

As I wonder aloud if this shit will ever really end

As yet another mother has joined a group that we all know we could belong to someday 

That mother's club we didn’t get recruited to this year so we can celebrate a birthday


I’m tired of this shit but don’t know that I have hope that it will end 

Because of the privilege that you hold that’s birthed out of the sin

Of centuries of trauma that yes your people did enact 

It’s a miracle that we even came out somewhat intact

Do you recognize that trauma is what I inherited and get to pass down too

To the next generation, what the hell am I really supposed to do

It’s the collective memory that we are tasked to carry 

That does not disappear after we bury 

Our sons and daughters murdered at your hands 

Since day one when you brought us to confiscated stolen land


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