I Am the Other Brother

I am too the other brother—

the brother who sits and waits for nothing that changes.

I am not him.

I am the brother who takes action

and turns it into revolution.

I am the brother who knows what it takes

to move through a world full of hate.

I am the brother who’s proud of his skin, dark melanin—

history tried to bury me,

but I rose again.

I am the other brother

that loves his people freely and openly.

I will not sit.

I will not wait.

I will not hate my own kin.

I am not that brother.

I am the brother that stands,

that builds,

that heals,

that remembers where we’ve been.