I wish you hadn’t done
All those things, but I’m
Not going to let our history
Dictate who I should be.
You have no power over
Me any longer, nothing
You say can make me do
Anything I don’t want to.
I will walk with confidence,
Look at myself in the
Mirror and remember
Who I am.
The vase of glass
Eventually could have broken
Anytime.
It’s OK, if it broke now and here!
It’s OK, if it couldn’t be
Put together and saved,
As Flowers so loved
Would still be there.
Pointed, sharp and deadly
Pieces of glass would surely splinter
It wouldn’t, however,
Shade the alluring vibrance
It wouldn’t even
Dent the charming fragrance,
Of the flowers withstood to dare!
Since when did white America
Become the right America
I’ll tell you
Once shackles and chains
Got replaced by ignorant brains
They think we have welcomed
Prejudices and absurd allegations
Since we have become a divided nation
Since some fight the grossness of injustice
With protests in abundance
They tend to focus on the ones who pretend
Not to notice that we as a society
Are reverting back to a time
Where rights were conditional, not given
Where the color of your skin
Was used for target practice
And you were driven,
Almost to extinction
Because of the distinction between us and them
It’s been hard to determine
Who’s foe and who’s friend
Thanks to their privilege
We get to sit back
While they pillage our homes
It takes a village…
To raise a child
But as soon as they step outside
They’re stepping into the wild
Lines are getting blurred
Tensions are brewing
Racism Trumps human decency
They ignore the fact that
We are the ones they are screwing
With rapid frequency, they hunt us down
And the sound of our exhausted voices
Amplifies their need to subdue
Our personal choices.
They take silence as a sign of defeat
They take silence as a sign of acceptance
From the beginning of time
We were never the ones to retreat
But snap back into reality
And come to our senses
At the expense of our sanity
We let those who came from
The Caucasus Mountains
Straight to the oval office
Profit off of our sorrows
They have stolen our lands
But convince us that they just borrow
With no intention of returning
It’s concerning how little resistance
There is on our part
The fight’s never over
They may try to poison our minds
But they can’t infiltrate our hearts.
Everybody who works in the fast food industry,
Bar staff, waiters, waitresses, all have one thing in
Common, they met in the pub
Quizzing an hour here and an hour there
Rushing for a bus or the last pint
Never spending time at home
Two hours is a lot when
You’re only five minutes’ walk
From home, we dwell to socialise
Just that hour one pint
Always just the one
But one pint won’t hurt
One becomes two,
Daylight, time
For work
Again.
To whom it may concern
I tender my resignation
I will no longer fetch
For though lashings
Have lessened canines
There is still bite
In this old dog
My shoes are hard
And I shall dance for you
No longer
Whispers in the dark
Will gain decibels in the light
Your failed attempts
To cut my tongue
Has only removed
All the “yessahs” and “massuhs” from my vocabulary
My fate is my own
Stained posts
Bearing fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, sisters, brothers
On the verge of collapse
From the weight of injustice
Rope-worn limbs buckle
As I make my last knot
And exit these killing fields
I will climb
the edges of this
pit, finding my own
stairs in its ragged
walls,
I will not stay low
forever
as some may hope,
but rise,
always rise up
to the yellow light.