Two Poems by Justin Banks

Soc[I]ety

Society attempted to box me in, in an attempt to make me one of them, telling me I must live, must speak their way, but if don’t; I’ll be punished for being different, for being extreme. A menace to society. When I was chasing a dream. I will stand for the destruction of mankind not another day! Soon is the time to break down the walls of society. When people are different they are not a stain, our uniqueness is our beauty, not our shame. So dare to be great, and fear not to offend. Society will never be able to box me in, but here I sit and wonder if I have become societies fool. Subject to its doctrines, imprisoned to its rules. For so long, I thought that I was an outlaw; when really I am society. I have done to others what society did to me. Killing their visions, destroying their dreams. I have become a box. I am society.

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Setting Things Straight

“You’re not black. Remember, we only kill black people.” – a Georgia Police Officer

The most overused cliché

designed to mold the minds

of a people into believing that

there is a commonality in our struggle

of social and racial injustice

is that: We are all the same.

But we are different,

black is different.