All Lives [Never] Matter[ed]

What is this commotion
Called "All Lives Matter"?
As if all of them ever did?
As if those first white-faced arrivals
Cared about the natives
Whose land they stole,
Whose women they raped,
Whose children they infected
With lethal diseases - 
As if all lives mattered then.

As if the African people -
Ripped from their continent,
Shipped like livestock,
Sold like chattel,
Enslaved to build up
A Republic that failed
To even recognize
Five fifths of their personhood -
As if all lives mattered then.

As if the brown babies -
Seized from their families,
Housed in cages,
Crying for their Mamis,
Originally brought to El Norte
To escape poverty and persecution,
The designated "Dreamers"
In the fantasy of America - 
As if all lives mattered then.

As if, "essential workers"
Who drove the buses,
Stocked the shelves,
Planted, harvested, transported, 
Cooked and served our food,
Nursed the sick
At their own peril
Without protective gear -
As if all lives mattered then.  

As if those struck by the plague
In nursing homes
(the sick and dying),
In private prisons 
(criminals),
In meat processing plants
(immigrants),
In black and brown neighborhoods
(no white people there!) - 
As if all lives mattered then.

Oddly, all lives matter
When they're in the womb,
Before race is revealed,
Before mouths want food
And souls make demands;
Isn't it hilarious how
All lives matter then! 

I dare you to tell me
"All lives matter,"
When taxpayers' dollars
Go to the richest 1%
While the working men,
Women and children,
Move into their cars,
Get in line for food.
Do their lives matter? 

Don't get in my face
With "All Lives Matter!"
Don't question my rage
Or B.L.M. placard,
Don't act high and mighty
And holier than thou
As if my focus
On these BLACK lives
Makes ME a racist
(Because what you think
doesn't matter).

Are you familiar 
With emergency triage?
If it's losing blood
Or CAN'T BREATHE
You tend to it first;
Unless of course,
You're a white cop
Taking a knee
On a black man's neck.
Do you feel me now?
If ONLY all lives mattered!

Months ago, when the Amazon blazed,
The smoke-engulfed rainforest cried out,
"I CAN'T BREATHE!"
Alarms clamored:
"The Amazon Matters!"
(Not: "All Trees Matter!"
Do you see the difference?)
Focus attention
Where the need is acute.
Because it matters.

And remember this:
If the "lungs of the planet"
Cease to work,
None of this,
Not one of us,
No matter our color,
Will matter. 

Copyright 2021 - Celenia Delsol