Inspired by Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday Standing tall by any means, going toe to toe with the trees of southern makers and enhanced outbacks. Sit and take a minute, trying to understand yet the news of the missing, abused and deceased weighs heavy. A never ending turmoil just wanting ease, a bite of a fruit leaves a bitter taste. Mourning as bodies shows marks of negligence, disrespect and unprotection. Fragile, innocent, white like snow? Not in the case of the unwanted shown in our reflection pushed aside mounted one on top of the other becoming a collection of an ongoing verdicts of unsolved or case closed. Debating on whether to hold my tongue as the legal system corrupts my voice I turn mute. Blessing, Oluwatoyin, Marsha, Kendra, Muhlaysia, Joy, Layleen, Breonna and countless others, their blackness rotting from the root. Strange fruit is the black woman reincarnated. Melanin might be magic but we are out here still being violated. Justice is confined, locked away and isolated. The once woke ally’s turn into careless bystanders, strange fruit doesn’t get a moment of reassurance because it doesn’t meet the world’s standards. Strange fruit is the black woman reincarnated. -Nathalia Onayomake