THE LITTLE VOICE
By Rafael Casal
IG/Twitter @rafaelcasal
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There was a little voice
that whispered to you
when you saw that knee on his neck
and black people got loud

“Well, maybe there is more to the story.”

When outrage is afoot
“Well, what exactly happened?”

When buildings are burning
“well, why can’t it be peaceful then?”

That little voice in your head
is the white cop of your soul
and I hear him too.

He thinks he sees justice
better than the people it fails
that little voice
I have spent my lifetime
trying to keep in a box under my heart
for the sake of my friends and family

but I know you hear it too.

I can see it in your eyes when
we are alone together
I can see you trying to guess
how much I listen to mine
what joke is safe to make
now that we’re alone.
It’s why I’ve spend most of my life
never being alone with you
to not afford that little voice
an audience.

I know you have a little voice too
and I won’t let ours talk to each other.
It is hereditary, what we have.

Hundreds of years conspired
to pass him down to us
and make us want to trust him.

You must learn to live in rebellion of it

like a sickness crawling out
when you are weakest
to assure you back to strong or wise.

If you need proof he hates you too,
just try and disagree
with someone else’s little voice
as if you’ve never heard yours before.

Watch them turn on you.
you’ll see in their eyes what I have seen
as he whispers in their ear,

“He’s one of them.”

The white cop of your soul
knows there is no cure for him.
he is in the air you breathe.

But he can be managed
and have far fewer symptoms
by building immunity over time

once you admit he is there.