His struggle is our struggle
An uphill battle,
Against the odds,
(Lost cause?)
Will there be any mountaintop?
His courage and brass,
To bite the irony,
The arrogance to fight
Knowing that a lost is (still) a win!
But the fight will continue
In his name!
We do not own one life
Nor is it ours to have.
It is the privilege to get a life
We are only given-
If it is a fight that we get
Then fight we must!
We only have the will-
Peace.
(From the will in William)
In memory of, and inspired by the lives, of William Tiny Jones, William Oba Perry, and William Bill Sykes
JUNKIES
Thoroughbreds tremble
As they anxiously
Await
To be mounted
By their monkeys
THE BIG O
If Oprah gave me a dollar
Then, I would holler'
'Cause money do not talk
Money yells! (Like my father would say!)
If the whole world changed
To hear her name
I'd call her my saint.
But I am not, 'cause I can not.
I love rich people to death
But it don't help myself
To hear what they say
'Cause there is a price to pay
Is how rich got that way!
I believe that it is great
For you to have that fate
(And I love your feats)
I know that I may cry
If you should ever go away
You pushed and pulled your way to the top!
Now, you pulling and pushing
About everybody!
Just try not to break
The skin-
That line is thin-
I can only improve me
Money is nice to see!
MARTIN - (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
It is as though he walked in his sleep.
Through the streets of Birmingham
Marched on Washington
And all about,
-A sleep walker.
Dreaming
He had a dream-
He shouted!
As if he saw the eyes of God
On that Mountaintop there,
"I may not get there with you...,
Longevity, (God explained to Martin),
Would be good... [Of course, you could do more]
(Tell them that)...Little black boy and little black girl,
And little white boy and little white girl,
You see, will be walking, together,
Hand and hand..." (King, M.L. 1968)
Martin, who, was a man of God,
No more, no less, is all.
It was no mystery-
He was called to preach, to serve.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(Matthew 11:30)
So that he took on the Mountain and he has reached the Top.
We will remember that he walked in
A dream,
Through-out this nation,
That one day,
We will awake!
A promise made is the promise kept.
-Its the Promised Land!
RAP MUSIC
Will you take the rap music?
Will you take the rap?
Will you take the rap music?
Can we rap about it?
The rap is the worst I saw,
They defile and disrespect
Everything,
That I rapped about.
They sold me out!
Will I take that rap?
It came from my adolescents
Who like me had protested those before?
Pops! You are too slow-
You will feel the cold.
Can't play any more!
The beat goes on forever!
Let us rap!
Because they never will
In that tree of life
They take another bite
'Hell what difference will it make?
When ours words,
Good' means bad.
Well they rap that bad means bad!
You say that you will never rap
Or talk about it.
Is his mother not your wife?
Are you not the produce of a woman?
Will you take that rap?
How far do you go back?
In the tree of real life,
Have you really fought the fight?
I dont think I can wait for it
To get right!
I rather be right now
I rather be happy,
I am!
Never questioning myself
(Intellectualizing)!
'Less I burn in hell!
The rap music
The paraphrased- paradise!
- A video flavor -
Most are still too confused
Of the muse!
About who is who and what it is
What is real and what is fantasy
And what is not.
'Less we burn in it
To feel the raft-
So, take another bite.
What difference does it make?
Let's rap (about) music,
And stop talking ('bout your but)
About youre wearing the mask! (P. L. Dunbar, poet)
I DONT KNOW NO BLACK PEOPLE
I do not know black people
I being black, I just know people.
I know some white people
Because I am not white people myself.
I was on the subway today standing
The train came into the station and a person gets up in front of me.
So there was a seat in front of me that I could have taken
But feeling conscientious, at that moment,
I then looked out on the platform to see who was coming onto the train.
It was a kind of elderly lady with a group of kids getting on.
So, I moved away from the seat to let her,
Who came on the train looking to, have that seat.
Man, I said to myself I could have sat down
And I would have been very embarrassed-
And you know,
May not have gotten up yeah!
But I saw these people would need a seat or two.
These people were so-called black people
But I did not see any black people
I only saw a kind of elderly lady with a group of children.
(Ill just say, because it is too late!)
If I had seen them as some black people maybe I would not have cared,
Or would have to force me to remember that they are people too!
You know, she had a West Indian accent.
TO BLACK WOMEN
I find it very hard to stomach
Today who I see!
It was my sister before
But now I dont know.
You remember me
How much I loved you so!
Not just in my heart
But as my equal
But now I am lost- by myself
Because my equal has no sugar
You grew up and blew up,
You are too phat!
Your beautiful Afro went like another fad
Your butt got phat like another wig
(Excuse me if I never make another rhyme,
It may not be the time.)
You laid, you played, and you stayed
But I had to go away.
So that I can still fight another day
Or should I say, so that I may
Love again.
But I cannot love who I see
You are not any part of me
And I do not want you to be
You never cared for baby boy
You just wanted to be the man,
Remember the cost to be the boss!
But we who see understand
And were not fooled
Nor are we gay,
It has not been that long
Since Marian sang her song
That we black men know where we belong
Yes! Master or should I call you missy
You arent anything with out me
Dont you see, that today we are nothing
Not that I want to cling-
But we did not write that song I sing.
And we have not written our story together
Still! We are nothing! Dont you see!
If our mothers dont care for us
Then why the hell should I care for us
If you really want to be the man,
Then be the woman!
(Silence Is Golden!)
Let me explain a little more:
Fourscore and then some more
Our forefather, not foremother, started this country,
Based: on the liberty for all, except me- the black man.
-A women was without herself-
Your fight was not, I was you -
You were not hated to walk this earth,
I was! You did not begin to hurt
You were ignorant to pain.
You are yourself today from here to Africa
Have you yet felt the pain?
Do you feel me walking on you back?
Like a woman in fear can you cry out yet, my woman?
I do still cry tears, on your behalf.
The woman has not cried out in pain!
I dont stand, but I am.
We are!
If you were my half sister
You still would be my woman
Black woman, you see
It is not love, but it is (love)
It is not a fight, but there still is (a fight!)
We will not be played!
Until the Sun calls you white
And until it calls me blue
We are called together.
STREET CHANGE
In the year 20--,
As President,
As leader of America,
And as God to the free world,
My first decree
Today, I give everyone
In this land permission
To use the sacred N word
You can call me a nigger.
[As only President Pryor before me would have had it]
I give the people, all people
Black, white, red, brown and yellow in America,
Permission to use the word (nigger) again
It is a word that we will have to learn to embrace
Yes, even we Afro-Americans, Coloreds and Negroes
Must remember the word, nigger.
The sacred N word can solve all racial ailments
There are in our nation today.
Because it has a magic of its own,
We had to take it away years ago [not ready],
But today, we need it.
The N word has our history in it.
Yes it has meaning, a powerful meaning
We have not been able to understand [not ready].
So today we will embrace it.
We will not be scared of the N word any longer
All men, all women and all children must learn to know it
No longer can we hide from it by not saying it
Calling it the N word, no longer can we hide behind it.
By saying it too often and anywhere in any sentence
So that it will not be heard.
(An empty wagon makes the most noise!)
We cannot continue to make love to the word, either!
A word that we do not love!
(And I dont think it love us, either!)
And I cannot laugh at that word, again!
Boycott the nigger jokes!
Until we understand the history of the N word
Americas history!
That is the history of slavery, here in America.
Then and only then, will The FCC, the FBI, the NAACP,
The Congress, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Police Department
And the Boards of Education STOP hiding behind it,
Or will they stop going to bed with it.
Wall Street made is lifes blood from calling it by the N word
We have to end it somewhere.
Yes!
As Your president call me a nigger!
And with your last breath find out
What it means to American History the word, Nigger.
By the way, my second decree to help us out with my first
And with the transformation,
I am changing the name of the famous NYC Street
From Wall Street to Nigger Street!
BLACAUSION
Trapped in a temple
-The embodiment-
The product of racism
Hate wrapped in bundles
We cannot live without it
Can we live with it?
What we are!
Its the shame
Its the names
All the same
Playing the game!
We are still the sons and daughters
Of a great people
We are survivors
Still my tapped blood flows
Against the tide, flowing upstream
Still hated for who I am
Still the hate from inside me
Because I am the sons and daughters
Of slave masters
I am asked a silly question,
About where do I come from?
I have to ask myself
Where am I going to?
-Who is your daddy?-
I just am!
I am still here!
Born like a cripple with limbs
That did not work
Like the blind without sight
Like the deaf,
I am like those who are crippled
By the hate, the fear, and ignorance
I still survived
I survive even as the butt of a joke!
We survive even as we did boar the yoke.
People cannot deny people
Gave rights we all have.
They must joke and lie
As their reasons why that they give.
We continued to live
We continued to walk
We understood and we comprehended
That those who have taken away
Gave it to themselves
Then, they tell us that
They are much better than us
Because they have our rights in their hands
While they seem to have so much more!
It is a simple magic trick,
Not done with mirrors,
But administered by a whip!
(Whos tripping?)
You are not the master of me!
I am not that freak of nature.
I was stolen from my land.
Tell the truth half-brother and half-sister
We are in the same family, the same world
There is only one way left to go up
Not on my back!
Chapter 2 -
THE ROOM WITHOUT A WALL
MY GIFT
A father, who loves me
Puts a pen in my hand
Gives me his words and makes them mine.
It is all the beauty there is
The love of a child
He asked nothing of me
Because he gave it to me
As only love can (give)
And that is what I am
Given what I have.
I am not better for my gift
Or because of it than you
Who reads or sings or thinks about this po
em
Love asked not!
My gift is only shared,
If you do- (read it)
ROOM WITHOUT A WALL
What is a room without a wall?
I guess nothing at all
If I saw a sight like this
I would run to an analyst
But wait don't be hasty
A story as this one
He would think I am crazy.
But wait.
I did not see it at all!
Because who sees a room without a wall.
LUST
Devil may care!
My soul burns for you
But I do not know why?
I just hunger for food
If I do not eat then I forget
I am hungry.
Until I eat again
And I remember how I was very hungry.
Can I suppress?
Lust!
My burning desires
And I cant just go hungry?
Quenching it behind
Those locked doors!
MY MISFORTUNE
Never was I to be rich
Because rich I am not.
I can not count how many
Diamonds it takes?
To change a light bulb-
I do not want you to call
My name
There is only one voice
I listen to one at a time.
I do not need a pat on the back
Unless you give me one
True happiness is to know
That I do not have to find it,
Anymore!
God is Love, so I should not
Want.
My peace is that I am just
Like you!
LAND
Newton proved that gravity
Keeps us on the land
In which we stand.
Land is a fact-
Like skin color
And it is as important.
(Like skin color)
You can take the fellow
Out of the country;
But you cannot
Take country away from the fellow.
(Poor sap!)
So if you land on your feet,
You will see it is not
The land which you should praise,
But the feet on which
You stand.
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence is the knowledge
That there is more in-which to tell,
The story is not complete.
Sometimes I wish
The damn story is over,
Or no one says a thing more.
Wisdom is when I can
See that end.
But, I do not have to be the person who ends the story
Period!
When finally we understand ourselves