The Last To Be Hired

Political and Socially Conscious Free Verse Poetry

Black History Month Challenge

Poem #25

The last to be hired
The first to be fired
The first ones they
Let go and furlough

As ethnic sounding

Names adds to

The pain

As Boom Keisha is
Downsized
Marginalized

Her hood
Gentrified

As

Rezoning

Districts
Are too
Large and ethnic
Shifting resources
Over to the affluent
Side of town
Where Starbucks
Teslas and Lexus (Lexi)
Can be found
Where iMacs attract
Their curious minds
As I find Apples
Don't fall from the
Tree
As some come to rest on
The desk of teachers
Or come from a
Store like Trader Joes
As they all know
That opportunities
Are bigger in cities
Like NYC
However, in
Places like D.C.
The disparities
Are easier to see
When the average
Life expectancy
Of a minority
Is under eighteen
Which means
Inner city kids
Will be dead

As books  are

Unread because they

Are dead

Minds never fed

As

Books were never gotten

Only for them to die and 

Be forgotten

Instead their apples
Remain lodged in their
Throats as they choke
Because apple pie
Is a dessert that
The disenfranchised
Doesn't have the
Resources to buy
As trees don't grow
For Negroes
Because in the concrete
Jungle
There is no water supply
That is why so many die
Because the waters of
Injustice never gives them
What they need
As they continue to bleed
Failing to breathe or thrive
Many won't survive
As they choke on ropes
Being lynched from the
Trees
Of hatred, discrimination
And injustice
As the substance of things
Not seen remains a dream
That keeps them poor
Knocking on heavens door
And running to the
Liquor store
Because they can't
Handle the truth
Anymore
Only to hunger and
Thirst 

Accepting and not

Rejecting

The idea of being last
And never first
Still believing in the
Biblical verse
That hasn't worked
Yet,
That the meek
Will indeed
Inherit the Earth?
As their beliefs

Keeps them poor 

Knocking at heaven's

Door

As they are
Anchored to a life
Full of  pain and regrets

0200270002021 Nefarious J. Dorsey©