Flags and Symbols

 
I love feeling the early morning cool breeze,
As I run the nearly empty streets of my town,
But suddenly I begin to feel some kind of fear,
That I’m at risk simply because I’m brown.

At those hours I only see one fellow runner,
I always smile and wave at the kind stranger,
He signs “peace” as he jogs the opposite way,
But then I can’t help feeling that I’m in danger.

The sun is rising, the air is getting warmer,
The music is helping me push through,
But as the morning light is shining bright,
Some of the neighborhoods are in full view.

A beautiful house near with a huge truck,
Display huge Trump and Confederate flags,
With stares as if I don’t belong around there,
In my race I quicken the pace like I’m a stag.

I think to myself “I shouldn’t have to run in fear”,
But then again, I’ve never been confronting,
“People wear camouflage for a reason”,
Yeah, when they go hunting.

In the past I've had a bottle thrown at me,
With obscenities yelled from a speeding car,
I’ve been called “terrorist” and other names,
But I always walk away when it’s too bizarre.

To tell the truth, I really don’t fear death,
I’ve had a pretty good life so I don’t mind,
But I do fear for my wife and my children,
At how the world has gotten so unkind.

I often think about what these symbols mean,
About what they really represent and decree,
And how history just tends to repeat itself,
When I’m called names in the land of the free.