Elizabeth Gonzales

"I am an aspiring poet who loves to write about loving one's skin and my struggles as a brown girl discovering self-love. My piece is a direct response to two documentaries: KKK: the Fight for Supremacy and Alt-Right: Age of Rage. Their ignorance had angered me when watching these documentaries and I felt like I had to express my frustrations through poetry. To send the message that we as people of color are here to stay despite what bigots are those who are people of color and defend ignorance say. "

​IG: @lizthebetterwiz

---

They Try to Make a Hell for Us

Spiteful devils raise broken teeth and growl
Trembling heavy jowls
Their eyes reflecting only damned fires and green greeds
“You will not replace us”
“You will not replace us”
They shout
And before we can speak ,
Birds flock and fly in circles, their screeching protecting baleful hymns
Before we can speak
Birds who look like us have sung beside trees drowning out our voices
Their cowardice overshadowing our existence 
Their assimilation revealing cheap white paint 
And what else is true comedy 
But To see a clown dance for spiteful devils
defending ignorance only to attack their being in the process 
What else is true irony 
Than When spiteful devils dare see us weak
dare claim white skin and blue eyes holy
When it’s their blue eyes and white hands holding hell fire in crosses
When they are preaching damnation and hell for us to burn in
I don’t even believe in God
But I see judgement day coming
They are trying to play creator with eugenics talk
Claim to have the higher IQ 
That we are the beasts
That our brain and nerves are pervading darkness
Like we can’t see through an evil spirit’s facade
See how hard they work to feed the bottomless void of an ego
Their mouths foaming at the thought of not being special 
That maybe they are not important after all but just a living image of stale bread
That without squawking birds idolizing their pale skin, they are nothing more than just ignorant salesmen
Trying to convince us of a post America
One where we are pushed into a corner and forced to sit
Watch as they conquer the world 
Their united whiteness hailing victory
A renaissance dripped in bloodshed
But we are the new world
Even if assimilating birds try to convince us otherwise
Even if they squawk and yelp for us to hide,
Our restless souls could never 
Not Since the day oppression started
For We have learned to stand
Since the day blood dripped on shackles
We have learned to break
To fight and scream
Scratch and march
Since the day spiteful devils prayed on our downfall
We have only risen
Become the spitting image of their nightmares 
Show them what true judgement day looks like 
Hope the fires that lick their wounds burn
Hope it teaches them to swallow the venom and sew their lipless mouths shut