 So, I am a playwright and I use spoken word poetry in my plays. And so this poem came from a play that I wrote about the police shootings between, the police shootings with the youth. And I couldn't really understand how a mother must feel when she loses her child to this incident. So I felt like a poem was the best way to capture that emotion. So this poem is called, Mother's Lament, Police Shootings. There's a dead corpse inside of me, like the baby bird fallen from his nest, fleeing for his life. Like the sea turtle, helpless on his back, plucked like the flower, innocent reaching toward life. Stripped from between my loins, they smashed my existence there. There you swam in a red pool and drowned in your stench. I watched a piece of myself die in my hands. My mouth is silenced by the screams inside my mind. Come, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Blessed, blessed are they that mourn. They shall be comforted of all the shattered pieces of my soul. They ripped the one sewn tightly to my heart, and spewed his life on the concrete like a freak show, grasping for life the way you emerged from my womb. After I kept you safe inside me, I bore you into death. Thank you.