With all the trauma we have genetically inherited
They ask why we mutilate one another like we do
They wonder why we hold such little worth for the other black life
Why we turn from bad to worse
As if we can ignore that from which we came
Raised from the concrete we are damaged petals
Yet we survive when we should not
Our tenacity is to be celebrated
Our will to reach the sun, to survive the odds
Africa is the concrete, the black skin the washed out soil
We are the damaged petals
Do not ask why we are what we are
Instead ask how we have become who we are
The damaged petals of the human flower
Adapted from Tupac’s Petals
Adebayo Alonge 