*** Protect Black Women ***

brothas~

let old age be the only door

that ever closes her eyes.

___

not our anger.

not our hands learning the language of harm

when they were born to hold galaxies gentle.

___

how did we forget~

the first home we ever knew

was a woman’s body?

heartbeat teaching us rhythm,

blood teaching us belonging,

her breath a bridge between worlds~

and now some of us return that miracle

with violence?

___

never again…

we gotta break that inheritance.

___

because love ain’t ownership,

ain’t surveillance dressed up as concern,

ain’t control tightening its grip

until her spirit forgets how to stretch.

___

love is~

making sure she outlives your worst day,

your ego, your temper, your silence.

___

say it plain:

no woman connected to my name

will ever have to rehearse her escape

like it’s a bedtime prayer.

___

say it louder:

no daughter, no sister, no partner, no stranger

should have to translate danger

in the footsteps of a man who claims to love her.

___

because femicide~

that cold word we keep pushing into headlines~

is just heartbreak made systematic,

is just violence getting too comfortable

in living rooms,

in kitchens,

in beds where trust was supposed to sleep.

___

brothas,

we gotta become unfamiliar to that violence.

___

we gotta be the kind of men

whose presence lowers fear,

whose voice never carries threat,

whose love leaves no bruises—visible or buried.

___

check your reflection~

if she feels smaller around you,

that ain’t love, that’s erosion.

___

we are not kings

if our kingdoms are built on her silence.

___

we are not protectors

if she needs protection from us.

___

so build something sacred~

a home where her laughter grows old,

where her wrinkles are earned by joy,

where time itself honors her survival.

___

let her leave this world

only when seasons have sung her full circle,

when old age finally calls her name

like a soft, familiar song~

___

and never

by the violence

of a man

who forgot

she was life

before she was ever his.

©️MustafaSantiagoAli

#ENDFEMICIDE #ProtectBlackWomen

#CerinaFairfax #ProtectWomen #AshleeJanae

#EndViolenceNow #NancyMetayerBowen