Victor Masoliah

Gentrification

In my country

Gentrification causes trees to be cut down

Trees that for 200 years

Have been lifting their branches to the sky

Learning to praise God the best way they know how

Existing In my Bible it says that Jesus restored sight to a blind man

The man said I see men as trees walking

I wonder if he saw their branches stretched out

Did he think they were waving in surrender?

Did he see a tree fall and if it did fall

Did it make a sound?

In cities across my nation

Neighborhoods are being gentrified

They who are blind to trees and men

Cut down our black boys

Having envied their strong mahogany backs

For the last 200 years

Mistook their strong bark for aggression for bullet proof

Tried to test their theory

I wonder did they mistake surrender for fighting stance?

When trees are cut down pressed into paper

How easy it is to rewrite laws

#CrimingWhileWhite

In Athens

There is a tree that owns its own land

In America

There are families that still hope for 40 acres and a mule

The trees are a forest of soldiers

A wall of determination they want to cut down

#ICantBreathe

Justice has been blind for so long

She sees men as trees

Ties ropes to trees

Watches them fall

Leaves them to sun dry

#DieIn

Dear God

When you see a tree fall

When you hear a tree fall

Take their hands

Carry them home

next page