Welcome to this week's Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week's episode features Christopher D. Sims.
Sims is from the West Side of Rockford and first shared his poetic gifts onstage at Haskell Elementary School, thanks to Dorothy Paige-Turner.
Rooted in Black joy and celebration, his poems wind through the landscapes of this country's past and present. He hopes they will inform, engage, and entertain. Sims, who originally wrote rap and hip-hop lyrics, said his poetry has a bebop cadence.
In this poem, Sims reminds us that it’s been four years since the death of George Floyd. He has a lot of questions in “After four years.”
After 4 years; 4 years
After George Floyd was
Murdered by a Minnesota
cop. The police murders
have not stopped. The
stains remain on concrete
after we met our maker.
The pressures are even
greater. A former president
is still a hater, still pushes
hate, still equates we Blacks
and Browns with everything
dark or down.
Where is the movement
for George these days?
Why are the skies still
dark, gray? What do
activists have to say
these days?
Where is the spirit
of George Floyd now?
Why aren’t we fighting
now? Didn’t King, Malcolm,
Medgar, and Harriet, show
us how?
Are we too complacent?
Why is activism reactive
when George is dead, isn’t
that backwards?
We are waiting for the
next traffic stop to name
the cops who killed another
sister or brother. We are still
being othered, wronged, arrested,
tested, tried. We still die. Mothers
fathers, sisters, families still cry.
Where is the spirit of George Floyd
in political halls? Why is legislation
always being stalled or called out
when it comes to Black people,
our freedom, our justice, our equity,
our communities, our schools,
reparations?
George Floyd died a victim; we
are still being imprisoned; the
Black diaspora still lacks hope,
a collective vision; there is still
a long way to go, a lot is still
missing.
4 years later, onto life
we are still gripping
because life in the United States
for we Blacks is still hard-hitting!
George Floyd’s spirit sees, listens,
from the universe’s extensions.
© Christopher D. Sims
May 20th, 2024
