Without thought or fear
Spilling—unconfined water
The words become wind
So abstract—
And so full of meaning…
Faces
We’ve spent nearly a year
creating faces
perhaps its easier
when there are no lips to deceive
we’ve created beautiful ideas
of things with half meanings
Broken
There is something
we don’t like to talk about
perhaps we already know
even if we let the monster out
change will remain the same
It’s been this way a while now
I scream—
—you shout
‘til there’s nothing left but silence…
hurt feelin’
we’re bruised and wounded
each other trying to out trump the other
reneging—inventing and preventing truth
patience raised into violence
because we’re broken
this is how we mend ourselves—kintsugi
but we gonna remember what we remember
and you will fight to shift the blame
‘til all that’s left is smoke and embers
‘less some hot breather stokes the flames
leaving us choked and blinded
gasping to breathe—dying to see
We’ve seen it every time
and pay it no mind
this red and blue sea
filled with blood and tears
hatred and love
between you and me
holding hands like lovers—your hand in mine
too afraid of letting the other go
walking down the same road
just with opposite dreams—
we mended pottery.
Truth [not a haiku]
truth—a fruit so sweet
Should never be withheld until it is profitable
water in a desert—truth!
The dying need the truth
If I am going to heaven let it not be on a bed of lies
And if to hell—there I will need more truth to wipe my brow
Let me panic—at least I will breathe a little
more.
When your faith is hi-jacked by politics you should ask yourself what party was your Creator in—not the one you put him in, but the one your creator registered into…
Black In America
My voice has no volume
for how loud my spirit wants to cry
In this vacuum
Where if I raise my voice I am unheard
And if I breathe I die—
On Independence
What it means to me in 2020 :
I would submit that to seek independence is to fight for it, not simply for individual-self, but for all who aim in the same goal and cause. To fight for it and then celebrate in victory while others audience in suffrage is to become as those once fought against.
The conscience of the nation must be roused [Frederick Douglass] from a fanciful dream rendered a reality at this moment; for even if one citizen under a banner of freedom who suffers in voicelessness, from inequitable rights and opportunities (economically, educationally, environmentally, etc.), or that the laws set forth to govern all is perceived bias on the scales of justice, how then can independence be celebrated by all denizens. And I choose the word denizen over citizens for there was a time during the fight of American independence where the slave was categorized as less than human [chattel] despite anatomical likeness.
When pressed with the notion of the progress our nation has made, I submit that the speed of progress is relative to the oppressed and suppressed; for that chronometer does not measure in the same way as that of cruelty. Perhaps we should measure the speed at which the founders achieved their goal in achieving their dreams we now celebrate versus the swiftness its descendants has balanced the scales that it measures equal for all despite race, creed, gender, and all that makes us diverse yet the same unified under the same pledge in the pursuit of freedom.
While I proudly think of independence and my service to its continuum, I would be remiss in not recognizing the uncalibrated scale that results in the unfair pricing of freedom.
Disclaimer: I express as a private and legitimate citizen, and not from that of a position afforded me by the institution for which I now serve. The above views are my own and are not in commission by any organization or institution.
Racism
Politicians saying there isn’t systematic racism in America is like having a knee on my throat while stating I have rights—America is a system with racism in it, to continue to dismiss this problem is to be complicit in its cruelty.
Protest
Kneeling
Ain’t
Kneeing
Inequality
When an oppressor dictates
how the oppressed can and should protest
it is apparent equality or freedom does not exist
This is the oppressor’s proverbial knee
pressed firmly upon the throat of the people
And any who supports oppression is an oppressor
Tshombe Sekou 