Hey, It's Me Your Gun. 

by Nyla Joi Spencer 

Inspired by How the Past Informs the Present, A Conversation with Roger Guenveur Smith & Caroline Randall Williams


Please human with the golden badge on your chest

I would just like to bring it to your attention.

You know ask you some questions? Maybe 1 or many just a few.

Should I be on your side?

Should I hate you?

Why do I let your fingers touch my trigger?

Why are you rolling those slurs off the tip of tongues?

Is this my purpose?

My heart is cracking. I know you can hear it chipping through my metallic roots.

Are you not uncomfortable?

How could you time after time abuse me?

It's quite amusing how scarily you yank me out of your back pocket.

Is it because of your skin that you are so quick to grasp me?

Why do you plant your palms on my breech?

It stings like steaming water contacting my skin.

It burns..

It's like fire.

Why reach for me?

 

Am I your partner?

Should we be friends?

Am I being chained not held.

Chained not held.

Against my will?

Like a cage.

Maybe you didn’t realize I’m traumatized. Im shaking.

Maybe you didn’t?

How do you rest at night knowing someone who wanted to even get to see justice because there was

no phone around?

Why do you allow me to do your dirty work?

Am I supposed to be proud of you?

Applaud you?

You have the audacity to say it was your duty.

To stop the threat?

But.?

The color of flesh is an excuse to make an arrest?

The color of flesh is an excuse to make an arrest?

The color of flesh is an excuse to make an arrest.

The color of flesh is an excuse to fire bullets in the back of their heads?


About 
Nyla Joi Spencer
Nyla Spencer is a sophomore at Nashville School of the Arts and has past experiences with working with Southern Word. Her writing career started in seventh grade when Southern Word workers told her she had a gift. Ever since, she been writing and learning more about herself as a writer. Her writing is always inspired from real life experiences and real world problems. She hopes to continue her writing journey and proceed to become a better author.
OZ Arts Nashville presents Art Wire: an ongoing collaboration between OZ Arts and The Porch in which 10 writers attend the OZ Arts performance season and respond to the presentations through original writing that is personal, playful, and deeply engaged. The OZ Arts 2019-2020 season offers each Art Wire Fellow a diverse array of inspiration, including innovative Japanese dance artist Hiroaki Umeda; a genre-bending presentation of Frankenstein by Chicago-based company Manual Cinema; and two emotionally raw works with Nashville's own professional dance company, New Dialect, just to name a few.

Explore The Work