THE QUESTION
What are our differences if I honor you in my own tradition, I send you roses and trinkets that make you smile and say nothing of my honor, what are our differences? Hair you say, eyes you cry, class you shout, money you inform, skin you attest. Capability you affirm, education you speak, blood you insist
For if my hair is not as your brother from where did yours come. And my eyes you say are not divine and skin seems such a petty argument as you know I had no choice, capability I must concede as your current accomplishment shows that you are much more capable than me, which brings me to the condition which you claim is my state, the question of class
Which of us do you feel is of a higher class, simply because you mention Income then I will have to respond taxation, government, laws, and unskilled labor Yes we blame it whatever it is we shall call it by its very name
The thing that is Oppression, difference of form Form, of which form do you speak What are our differences, except what we know we have in common?
SOW
If you take a see and put it in the ground what flowers do you think will grow
Into bloom will be the very thing that you claim you don’t want the neighbors to see
Maybe the plant of life should I call the exterminator
If you take a see and put it into the ground what flowers do you think will grow
Front stage for all to see is the one thing that could bring you to your knees
Maybe a heavy conscience of guilt and fear it’s clear that we’ve cried some tears
If you take a seed and put it in the ground my friend there is a word for that deed you know, my friend what you do is sow
If you take a seed and put it into the ground what development do you think would take place?
My friend if you don’t water, nothing, but let’s say you do, well a flower will appear
All delicate and new with buds closed and fragile
If you take a seed and put it in the ground what development do you think would take?
Place. Grasping by the neck it is ripped for its bed and tossed into a cold dark shed never to praise the sun
If you take a seed and put it in the ground my friend what you do is sow
And when you’ve ripped that flower from the ground there is a name for that too you know, but that word I speak of could cause you to end up down below
So when you take a see and put it in the ground there’s a word for that did ya know
And that word my friend is sow, so try to understand that when you take a see and put it in the ground my friend what you do is sow
SMOKING
Tired of smoking
Tired of being smoked
Situation never changing
Never any life rearranging
Just puffing and chilling
Relaxing and willing
Tired of being smoked out
The epitome of blackness
Mysteriously maneuvering thought
The maze of mental war
Love of will cannot manifest
Details are necessary to execute the goal
Looking skyward, bound for what has been preached
Since years of young
Tired of smoking
Tired of being smoked out
Looking forward pray don’t look back
Why can’t I find my way get on track?
See I’ve been smoking and every day
Is the last one, but I always find myself
Holding a cigarette, pulling, inhaling
Drawing it all into me, fire disease, death
Breathing, living may be too hard for me
But i’m tired of smoking and tired of
Being smoked out
DESTINY OF MANKIND
Could we be so on the wrong track, how do we pull the youth back?
Toward civilization toward prayer and meditation toward respect for self and love for others, to honoring our fathers and our mothers
Is it that we don’t want what is right, for we keep feeding the evil appetite and self hate and corruption?
Drug dealers what are you doing where is your conscience,
You say you hate the man that it’s because of him that you do what you do
But do you understand the body count do the science and look around
Dead black men and women and your known enemy is your closest friend
Could we be son on the wrong track that there is no way to pull mankind back from the brink of self extinction, eyes focused on revelations while cries for free will are ignored?
By those who quickly get bored with today’s creation, and seek ways of control by new inventions
Those who try to readjust god’s intensions all this nothing but an illusion
Adding to the confusion making people feel secure in a world soon to be no more
THE WEB
It began with a smile and how do you do, with the words I used to date someone who looked just like you . A twinkle in the eyes staring deep in my soul as I stepped into a web hundreds of years old. A man tall handsome sweet with sex appeal who sang my song of praise as kisses he would steal, deceiving my heart altering my reality, as I stepped in a web spun by him for me. To me he was the essence of real beauty, black, sexy with a sense of identity. Passionate in love and the war for humanity.
But why did he target me, was it because I made it so easy, Following the urge to love you freely experimenting with our chemistry. Taking all of you into me, Oh what a tangled web you weave, I was a woman of the world but so naïve. Exactly what was it that I believed, that you would love me eternally, That we would live happily and expand our current family.
No these were all just fantasies, but I expected honesty in your words to me. The only way to determine our destiny why I was drawn to you and you to me. How could you tell such a lie after presenting the image of a conscious guy?Deny the wife with whom you took vow, deny the sanctity of your love, Spitting in the face of the lord god above
This has really hurt me emotionally; I had never been with a married man you see. Will I burn in hell for committing adultery? I must accept this as my responsibility; I saw the ring I knew it was there. But I never looked close I guess out of fear, I asked the question and believed what I wanted to hear, the answers were your silky thread released from your lip with care. Did you ever want love from me, or just something that was given so free? Because you have found the mate for your soul so dealing with me what is your goal.
What is this love your profess for me and is it because I am a novelty, Who will share the rest of your life; technically it should be your wife. She too seems caught in the lies; she has probably heard all your alibis. Never knowing where the truth appears, dealing with her own insecurities and fears Holding your false image dear making sure your web does not break, For her and the children’s sake.
And now like her I am too am trapped, in your web I am the rat. Who was tempted and drawn by the aroma of cheese, but regrets the first bite and wishes to be set free. Will cupid grant that wish to me or am I shackled by Aphrodite and your web a consequence of me being me?
Maybe you don’t even care for this is your usual affair, maybe its best to disappear. And act like what we had was never there, I don’t want to build on lies and I don’t want to say goodbye. So in the web I dangle each day and hope that you will see, that spinning a web of lies to trap ladies is no way for a man to be.
FEAR
No one said it was petal of roses this I do agree
But why does life always seem to save the thorns for me
Tragedy adversity, no happiness you see
Everyday new ideas not going anywhere
Crippled by insecurity, self doubt and fear
Words of encouragement I simply cannot hear
Scared of taking chances of falling in a hole
Setting up challenges but scared to accomplish the goal
Scared to turn left scared to turn right, scared to wake up in the morning and scared to
Go to bed at night
Scared of getting answers to the questions that I ask
Scared of my inaction and that someone will beat me to the task
And scared of doing work for which there is glory in to bask
Someone said do not fear for fear is thyne enemy,
But I say to that dear fool that fear has been a friend to me
For I have been here for centuries and fear has been my loyal company
“Eve”
A young girl I was running across the fields of an old plantation land
Wondering why the black man ain’t respected by the white man
Looking at my braids, wishing they were curls
So I can look like the beautiful ones
The blond, blue-eyed girls
With her skin so milky-white
Mine the opposite, dark as if night
She-bouncy and glowing as if radiating night
Whispering, if you looked like me it would be alright
On her head a halo laid
So I took her hand because I was not afraid
All grown up, things can’t be worse
Maybe it’s true, maybe we are cursed
Why these big lips?
Why this black skin?
Why these big hips
Why can’t I be thin?
Questions that seemed to have answer
I know I just did not want to get skin cancer
So I puffed on my stog
Looked in the mirror and checked out my clothes
Suck in here, tuck in there and pressed to the max
Hair dyed, curly and of course well relaxed
America has been good to me
I look nothing like the “bush bunny”
Yeah, I’m an “American girl”; if it can be done I can do it
With my press on nails and fatherless child to prove it
I got my kid in one hand, and my welfare check in the other
Sniffed a line and then cursed out my mother
I’m feeling real free
You just call me “miss statue of liberty”
Hate the black man, of course you do
Look what he done did to you
Hate the black man sugar
Of course I do give me the gun I will pull the trigger
Shoot that Nigger kill him dead
Who he think he is messing with my head
While I give myself to this Italian
He is now my black stallion
Black coffee to strong add a little white
And it will lessen the bite
mmmmm just right gonna make love all nite
Woke up in the morning finding out
I was lying next to a stranger
Suddenly feeling I was in danger
Puffed on my pipe cause I’m deep in the hype
While insisting I’m not that type
Believing in lies generated by me and society
Walking in a state of dazed hypocrisy
Everything that was real is now fake
And the man laying next to me is not longer a date
Put it this way we did not remain friends
That’s ok, I’ll make it anyway
Get me a big office overlooking the bay
Flying in jet planes, attending meetings all day
Yeah, that’s the goal and I’m gonna strive for it
Even if I didn’t conceive it
Get that house, buy that car
Getting drunk in a trendy bar
Close your eyes, do you see what I mean
Can’t you just picture the American Dream?
For me it’s crystal clear, even through the smoke and beer
I’ve paid my dues
Sung the blues, walked in $500 pair of shoes
But still I lose
Is this the way it’s supposed to be
Can this be the destiny?
Follow those who oppressed my ancestors and subsequently me
Weren’t they the ones who lied and made me think I was free?
Are they the ones who taught me to hate me?
So now I stand at the edge with time
And history unfolds before my eyes
And what was fake is now real what was hidden now revealed
African nations and culture once strong and mighty
Was colonized due to murder and enslavement by whitey
Taught to hate its very seed
Trained to cater to the white mans need, garbage to our children feed
Programmed to worship money and promote greed.
I just don’t want that to be me
So on my knees I pray to thee
Render us a speedy recovery
Let every black eye open and see
And every heart show respect for “his” creation
Eve, the original, black woman, mother of the nation
[...] Painful Poetry [...]