This is a poem I wrote in response to the disgusting display of white supremacy that took place at the Unite the Right event this past weekend in Charlottesville, VA.

Red, White, and Blood

an original poem by Elayna Mae Darcy

The saddest truth
is that we were never better,
and your “greatness”
was a myth and a lie.
Fed to the knowledge-hungry
minds of our children
so often and so young,
that before we even knew it,
we were addicts to the lie
of a free country.

We believed it was
one built on
promise,
togetherness,
and equality.

You branded it
onto our brains
when you forced us to
stand and pledge allegiance
to a flag made of blood.

Red blood,
for the lives lost.
The people you slaughtered
to build your picket fences.

Blue blood
is woven as the background
to the stars, because you believed
your money mattered more
than lives.

White blood,
for your bigots
who died to “protect”
a culture that believed
that those who were
black brown or other
deserved to be ripped
from their mothers
to serve you.

As a child,
I pledged to your
red, white, and blue blood,
not knowing the truth.

I thought that the
star spangled colors
stood for something good.

I wish I had known it was lies.

But when I look to
the truth with eyes
wide open, I see…

This place was never free.

So I stand with the people
who don’t look like me.
I try every day,
to shut up and listen
to their truth,
their history—
the honesty
classrooms kept from me.

I cannot change
what’s been done,
but I can help change
what’s to come,
with a mind that’s open,
and with a heart
that beats as one.

—

(Cover photo by Filip Bunkens)