When the tunes of the anthem fill your ears,

And you see those stars and stripes.

You stand to honor your peers,

And remember tears wiped.

You remember your fight,

And relive the pain.

Armed Forces blue, red, white,

You remember the slain.

But this.

This is not your fight.

Or to defy you.

This is about what’s right.

Look what we’ve come to.

This is about us remembering a different kind of soldier.

The ones who’ve been beaten by the batons of police.

People shot dead for wearing a uniform they were born in.

So, we fall to our knees to hear their cries.

We fall to our knees to say it is WRONG.

This isn’t to disrespect troops that died.

This is about the country behind the song.

We stand for righteousness,

But kneel for it too.

This is a different kind of battle,

It’s not about you.

“Find another way to protest.”

This is the effective way,

But it’s taken out of context.

The area is grey.

When our enemies are among us

What more shall we do or say?

So, with my broken heart, I pray.

Scorned for our protest.

An ironic twist

Protests made the U.S.

So why all this?

This is not your fight soldiers and sailors.

We honor your service and love you.

It’s the country’s behaviors.

We don’t salute them, but we salute you.

Behind The Poem:

The Poem Kneel for Righteousness Stand for the Soldiers was written with the troops in the heart. Behind all the protesting, those who’ve protected us, have been hurt. I want to take the time to thank you sincerely. All my friends and family who have served, thank you. I also want you all to know, we are not protesting because we do not honor you. We are disgusted with the events of our country’s prejudice behaviors. We’ve utilized our protected rights to protests but we never told you we didn’t mean to offend you. I apologize on the behalf of all. I hope you can forgive us and identify the racial issue at hand.

Perceptual Plazz The Poet