Dedicated to:
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

Ida be well, 
And get your weapon.
At least they don’t discriminate against
black ink.
Maybe you should write in red,
but they wouldn’t understand anyway.
They say you should have no rights.
Keep writing that you do.
So they can hear your screams.
silent on paper.
So you can scream for them like you
in gruesome adjectives and verbs,
placing horrific images in minds
of what their neighbors did.
Even the blind can cry.
When the printed news bleeds
and is read.