Shelby G.

The Eruption of America

Imagine a city
Flourishing from afar with a beautiful and calm volcano in the background
As a breeze blows slowly
With the people exchanging greetings and food as they walk back to
their humble home
But underneath these happy greetings and the calm volcano
There is magma brewing

Ready to come out of this volcano
The top coming off
Rocks falling fast
And eventually

Magma turning to lava as this volcano blows up like a bomb
Destroying this tranquil city
Despite warnings many people said as their horses brayed, people stayed
Ignoring and being oblivious to the disaster happening in front of them
And when it came to the explosive end
People ran for their lives with pillows to cover their heads
Under the grey sulphuric sky

These ignorant people of Pompeii were running as a reaction because
they weren’t proactive
Much like the ignorant people of America
Who discriminate others because they don’t understand
That they are stirring the rumbling magma below
As they wear a cop badge and shoot an innocent teenage boy because

They assume an Arizona tea is a gun
Because all black boys in their mind are dangerous

And Travon’s body falls with blood flowing out along with the others
who are innocently killed
As people shout black lives matter
As a warning like those in Pompeii warning others to move away
From the eruption that was about to happen
This movement is like a warning to people
To not discriminate because
We all are worthy and an original

Different but still equal
Don’t need to be oppressed with rusty chains
Because we all need to realize killing and trapping others because of their skin
Will leave us all under muddy ashes in a place to be forgotten
Where bodies are frozen in time
And that volcano won’t care what color you are
Because in Pompeii captors and slaves alike were under ash

In a city that once was beautiful but now
Ruins with rocks barely holding together
And dirt is the only thing blowing in the breeze

This could be
The future America
If we don’t stop prejudice and injustice
Because the constitution says every man is equal for a reason
That we all deserve life liberty and the pursuit of happiness
So why make others depressed and trapped

When they are as good as anyone else
Why give a black man 7 years to a white man’s 2 years in jail for the same crime
Why be the civilization that started with racism and slavery
Then ending
With an eruption that brewed for centuries

Finally killing those too ignorant to listen