By When they called America the dream.
When they imagined golden streets of freedom.
When the Smithsonian confesses that the statue of liberty was originally an Egyptian peasant.
When you realize its another example a colored woman being viewed as a site to visit.
When she’s forced to use her body for fame.
When you realize the Egyptian peasant is Muslim.
When America refuses to accept anymore Muslim refugees.
When America accepted your family.
When families in Aleppo, Syria accept their death this morning
When the morning accepted their final goodbyes through twitter.
When no one mourns.
When goodbyes are met with silence.
When Aleppo isn’t trending on twitter.
When silence during genocide becomes a trend.
when we already let this happen to Rwanda, Bosnia, and Burma
When its the only time the U.S. won’t get involved in a nation.
When nations are being executed and no one wants to talk about it.
When you lived through war and never talk about it.
When escaping means living.
When living means suppressing.
When your American citizenship erases your past identity.
When your identity identifies with their war.
When your citizenship identifies what side you’re on.
When being American conflicts with being pro-black, pro-Middle-East, pro-yourself.
When yourself wants to wake up.
When you want to be woke.
Remember,
You came here for the American dream,
But some of you are deep-sleepers.