Black and Blue

Black skin,
Black eyes,
And black lives.

Blue uniforms,
Blue bruises,
And blue lives.

And there a man stands,
Lost and abandoned,
Wearing blue uniform
And black skin.

“Who do I stand with,”
He says to himself,
“When they call me ‘Uncle Tom’
“Or ‘just a dirty old nigger?’”

He was punched by a protestor,
Then by a redneck,
And turned black and blue
Through bruises and eyes.

Now he lies in his bed,
And looks out of the window,
Seeing blue and black lives
And despising them both.