I Pray They Stop Killing Us This Year

i dream like a prayer laid down
at the throne of a god that is not white.
who cannot be cannot be white
because white gods do not care //
enough
to unlearn their love of Black bodies
at the gates of heaven
and i am tired of begging for life from a god
that commands death as payment
to an eternity we will never be white enough for.

i dream late night prayers to an omnipresent God
who created us, Black as we are, to look like them.
may i be heard
may we be seen and sent heaven
here on this side of living
where our blood is not a feast for whiteness.

i dream (prayer-like) that they stop killing us this year //
amen amen amen amen amen amen and again, amen