Believers as Empty Sockets (To Plug Into)

We have been believers
In black magic spell casting
Necromancy saint-making
Birth blossom sniffing
We have been believers
In the color of rulers
And the rules of close color
Paint with a wide brush
turning into photographs of spray paint
Where the reds and the grays never touch
We have been believers
In plastic wrap infancies
Where there are no sharp corners
Out in miles of concrete walkways
And say it's for our own protection
We have been believers
In steel jacket magazines
White rose funerals
Public lynchings of private citizens
We have been believers
In ships that sink like clockwork
In vines that strangle the fruit
Just put metal detectors in the schools
And let the torments continue
We have been believers
In angry letters to the editor
In making a home a fortress
In crossing the street
If we see a black man on our side
We have been believers
That blood runs black in the night
That snow spells out sacred tendencies
That we can cleanse ourselves of they
They with loaded hands and empty hearts
It is we that have failed them