Driving While Black

Driving While Black.

My 5 year old nephew and I went out for ice cream one night.
His mind, so inquisitive, asking questions at the speed of light.

He asks, "Uncle, Why is the sky blue?"
"Uncle, why don't dogs talk like we do?"
"Uncle, who invented drums?"
"Uncle, where do babies come from?"
I try to answer his barrage of questions as best I can:
"Because it's how the sun lights up the sky"
"Because dogs don't have the same brains as you and I"
"I don't know who invented the drums"
"Uhmmmmmmm I think you should ask your mom"

He laughs at my responses, looks out the window, spots a police car and decides to use his newly discovered rhyming skills to relay a message to me.

"Uncle?", he says.
My response, "Yes?"
"I have a story for you."
I respond, "Go ahead, shoot."
He says, "Roses are red
Violets are blue
And a flash of white light alternates between the two."

A Police car was pulling us over.
My heart could not have beaten any slower.
As I braced myself, trembling as the officer approached,
I also took on the role of my nephew's life coach.

"Wipe that smile off your face! Look straight ahead! Don't seem suspicious!"
"You have nothing to fear police officers aren't vicious."
I thought to myself, "Perhaps driving while black at night was a bad choice."
"I hope my nephew didn't notice the distress in my voice."

One officer came to the car....... followed by another.
"Good night officer, what seems to be the complication?"
As I had guessed, I was suspected of driving while being the wrong color.
He snarled, "Just give me your license and registration."

As I reached for what the officer had asked
He then shouts at me, "Don't move so fast!"
Slowly handing him what he asked me to
The taser went off
"Stupid Nigger, I warned you!"

The officers pulled my nephew and I out of the car and laid us on the floor.
By this time fear for my life had already rotted me to the core.

My nephew, puzzled but not yet afraid, continued to cater to the curiosity of his brain.
At that point I wish he hadn't been given a mind that was anything but plain.
"Uncle, why are you so sad?"
"Uncle, when can I see my dad?"
The questions he asked frightened me even worse
Because it was at that point I had remembered that police brutality had put his father in a hearse.

I answered him in a grave voice, As tears fell to the asphalt from our faces,
My heart beating faster with each of the officers' encroaching paces.
I felt one officer put his pistol to the back of my head
"Emmett Till, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, me, you and your dad."
We all got one thing in common; we are dead.
Just before I heard the gun trigger go boom.
He asked again, "Uncle when can I see my dad."
I answered "Soon."

*Boom*