Message to Racism

I AM NOT, I AM NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM
COURSE MY BLOOD, YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH
YOU WILL BELIEVE IN MY FUTURE, UNDERSTAND MY PAST
IT’S MY PRESENT THAT STANDS BEFORE YOU AS PROOF
THE BURDEN OF PROOF, IN CASE YOU ARE BLIND
SITS HUMID AND MOIST BENEATH MY SKIN
IT PERMEATES THE EARTH, THE AIR AND THE LAND
IT RADIATES FROM WITHOUT, TO MY CORE DEEP WITHIN
I HAVE LIVED IN THESE LANDS FOR THOUSANDS OF LIVES
I CONTROL NO BOUNDS THOUGH I KNOW WHAT THEY ARE
MY MIND IS AS NEFARIOUS AS THOUSANDS OF WARS
YET I WALK WITH GOD, THAT’S HOW I STAY ON PAR
I HAVEN’T EXPERIENCED ADOLESCENCE IN HUNDREDS OF YEARS
I SPEND MOST OF MY DAYS RECOLLECTING MY PAST
I KNOW WHO YOU ARE IN YOUR VARIOUS FORMS
FROM THE FIRST TIME I SAW YOU, UNTIL THIS THE VERY LAST
I HAVE TAKEN YOUR ABUSE, YOUR LABELS, YOUR ANGST
YOU WILL DIE AT MY DOORSTEP, NO LONGER WILL YOU ROAM
YOU’VE DELINEATED MY PEOPLE FOR THE VERY LAST TIME
I WILL PUT AN END TO YOUR EXISTENCE BY THE END OF THIS POEM
RACISM, I BESEECH YOU, NEVER TROUBLE US ANYMORE
GO BACK TO THE DARK AGES FROM WHENCE YOU CAME
NEVER LET SPIRIT, NOR POWER, NOR MONEY RESURRECT YOU
YOU HAVE HARMED WAY TOO MANY WHO HAVE FOUGHT IN YOUR NAME
YOUR CLOUD OF JUDGMENT HAS BANGED ITS LAST GAVEL
YOUR SPECTER OF TRUTH HAS TRANSFORMED IN THE LIGHT
YOU CAN NO LONGER PORTEND THE ILL FATE OF MY PEOPLE
YOUR WEAK HAND OF WRONG PALES TO THE STRONG HAND OF RIGHT
KNOW ME FOR WHO I AM, FOR YOU WILL NOT SOON FORGET
THE INDIVIDUAL WHO STOOD UP TO YOU AND SPOKE YOU AWAY
I PLAN TO GET MY FELLOW MAN TO COMMIT TO YOU THE SAME
I PROMISE RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF YOUR DAYS

My Mankind Story Abridged (In 150 words or less)

I have no words
I just have my heart
To tell you a story
About worlds apart

How worlds collide
Yet create some space
For peace and love
One human race

One race against time
To build a life
Of enormous consequence
Of men and mice

Of mice and men
Who strive to coexist
With power and money
Ideologies amidst

Ideologies adrift
The Bible over-interpreted
Leader of Church determines
Vice and sin satiated

Insatiable appetites grow
Communities built to slave
First land then consumerism
We were better off in caves

Cavitous minds need filling
Though now decay inevitable
Sleep aids just to dream
Approved narcotics edible

Disapproved cures for healing
Nations continuously unwell
Pump more money into R&D
Acknowledge Healthcare failed

Society has failed
Fix analogous to one
Global Warming is to Ice Age
My mankind story now done

Water-Break Prayer

Mirror Mirror, on the the wall
Tell her she’s the fairest of them all
Tell her her beauty is marred by none
Not Childbirth, not abuse, not anyone
Tell her she’s a flower that never shall die
Tell her I love her and that’s no lie
When you show her, herself, please make the reflection smile
Even if her makeup has left her in denial
Tell her that sometimes our best defense
Is vulnerability, but exercise a little common sense
That our negative self-consciousness can only grow
If we succumb to the beliefs of what other’s tell us so
Tell her to enrich her being with truth and love
And the stars in her eyes, once twinkled above
Lastly, Mirror Mirror, tell her she’s the sun and the moon
And please do it today, before I exit her womb

Amen

Author’s note: Pregnant women, you are all beautiful to me.

Life Under Siege (Perhaps Unfinished)

Fragile minds
Being educated on the government's dime
So my books were tattered and torn
Like I was
Smug
In my belief that
Might makes right
So black being power
Meant I sat on top of the world
Until it unfurled
And we started to go to jail
For aggression
What's my lesson then?
Par down my dreams?
So it seems
To mom and pop-sized allegories
While my nightmares
Conglomerate
I sit
For fear
That someone
May see me stand
And realize
I'm a man
Ah damn
How did we get here?
Recognition = fear
Oh, I know
Day became night
And night became day
And while the Earth produced all this movement
We didn’t do enough to change
Who's to blame?
They say I'm not
But I believe I am
You fight wars for what you believe
And when you're defeated
Or change comes
That's when wars stop
In that vein
I should be no different than Iraq
Or Barack
We're not fighting a war
And the changes we need are not in place
For every race
So that must mean we're defeated
Among other things
Uneducated
Unsatisfied
Intolerant
But un-unionized
Sensationalized
Through sport
However, gold trophies
Don’t hold down no fort
Maybe a court
With one rim on either side
Breakaway
Because they got tired of Gorillas
Bending them
“Leave it to them
“To bring athleticism
“But take away finesse”
My jump shot’s a mess
So I’ll just be big
And they’ll pay me to be that way
I had a dream the other day
The golden gate had barb wire and a keep out sign
It said “reserved for those who fight for it”
I woke up breathing heavy as if I just got back
And said
Damn, what a shame
Or was it
Damned, what a shame
Because I felt damned
I’m in no man’s land
Put it in front of my face
Couldn’t recognize my own hand
I get dressed
To go to work
My life is under siege

To Be or Not To Be

What I won’t be:

Inconspicuous, inconsequential, irrelevant, enigmatic, standoffish, impossible, ignorant, stagnant, dangling, straddling, sycophant, irrational, needy, tardy, impervious, brutal, cruel, inhumane, benign, paltry, small-minded, dead, shrewd, closed, asleep, dim, stunted, simple, complicated, foolhardy, wayward, dissident, pontifical, depravitous, systemic, put-off, brainwashed, deplorable, heinous, hermitous, frugal, naive (anymore), subversive, capricious, malignant, stingy, repulsive, stalking, under-appreciated, overstaying, spiteful, jealous, insignificant

What I will be:

Dynamic, friendly, important, family-orientated, rational (most of the time), sincere, informative, supportive, positive, optimistic, racy, judgmental, pre-emptive, inventive, heartfelt, thinking, piquant, cogitative, palpable, vulnerable, edgy, fire-starter, confrontational, balanced, sagely, uplifting, complicated, simple, dominating, charming, relaxed, inviting, prognostic, deliberate, absorbent, dispenser, connected, connector, proof, substantial, heard, read, tasted, felt, dug, understood, remembered, impactful, boastful, Black, African, American, cogent, renowned, Jaramogi, Kareem, Mr. Adams

And that's just off the top of my head.