Privilege

A poem.

Go anywhere

Do anything, dine any place

Receiving unearned respect

While climbing on the backs and dead bodies of others

Privilege fills corporate ladders, makes weak pillars,

And makes brothers enemies

Privilege takes from mines

Give to theirs

Walking the streets freely

Acting as though it cannot see me

Privilege approves and endorses

Revokes and destroys

Lies and steals

Protects its own

Even when its wrong

This privilege gives you the power to

Criticize and legitimatize

Allow and forbid

Create and destroy

Help or look away

Privilege, you control all things

Good and bad

Whether you own it or not

Your privilege is a birthright

Your birthright makes everything right

Especially at night, when the cops come a knockin

This privilege is granted upon birth

And maintained until death

This unearned privilege passes down the wealth

And bad health

To us poor wretches born without it

Privilege has stolen from me

Its immunity is not new to me

While ole privilege makes them free

Their privilege is my prison

2019 Marley K. All rights reserved.