By Kadyn Washington, Virginia State University
Second-Place Winner, Poetry, 2022 VSU English Department Writing Contest
The sounds of gunfire masks the cries and screams
Take me away
Take me away from this place where plaster and paint meant more than flesh and blood
Away from a place where the neighbors mean more than the victim
Take me away from helplessness
Take me from this place where I can’t sleep peacefully without being a target
Away from this place where a black woman’s life is so unappreciated
And her justice for her death remains unseen