Over two hundred years ago, a great poet whose limelight shines on me today
Was published despite the fact that she was a slave
Her story inspired me to express my desires deep
And release the talent that God had placed within me
This epiphany came and shed light down my dark path
Destroying boundaries which held me captive in that silent wrath
Exposing my naked soul to a freedom once compressed somehow
In a city where raw emotion is hidden but none-the-less I’m here now
Over two decades have passed and my creativity is still not free
Remaining misunderstood by the vast majority
Twenty years later and self-expression remains smothered
By my own neighbors, friends, family, sisters and brothers
After hundreds of years of freedom; Negroes still inhabit solitude in their own minds
Still slaves of a new kind
Materialism and shine
Continues to make us blind
Even after many cries for freedom and lost lives for equality
Negroes choose to remain trapped in a cycle of low quality
Full of frivolity
With futures still neglect of reasonable policies
What they called life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
We chose to make into strife, bigamy and attributed of nappy-ness
Yes, civil rights are civil wrongs
But how long
Will we sing the pity song?
Now the man in the mirror is the ONLY one to place the blame on
We continue to fall short as if we’ve never had a reason
As if King, Parks and many more didn’t stand, sit, march and die for our freedom
Yes, America has failed us time and again
But we can’t depend
On a country to ascend
What the Lord has placed within
She wrote that check for insufficient funds
But that’s not excuse to be the deficient one
Our choices are illicit rather than omniscient
Opportunity lies around every corner but we choose to dismiss it
My brothers and sisters…
There is nothing better than the present, nothing more convenient than RIGHT NOW
No time better to stand up and refuse to bow down
Yes, patience is a virtue
But procrastination can hurt you
The Queen can alert you
But only you can convert you
So with the urgency of emergency let’s make sacrifices for our kin
Sketch a new path for our children’s children
Because if you love them you won’t allow them to endure the same wrath
If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always had
Escape the dark abyss into WIDE OPEN sovereignty
Erase the bruises from the grasp of struggle and poverty
Swim with the tide and emerge from the quicksand
Because there is NOTHING that the solid rock of unity cannot withstand
Carry your brother on your back because he ain’t heavy
You’re trying to make it in this world alone but you just ain’t ready
We shall gain our right place without any wrongful deeds
African Americans will never achieve if we continue to place our wants before our needs
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…I do not explore the alley of blindness
My Father has granted me so much common sense while many others are left mindless
It’s funny how we all want the rainbow’s pot of gold after the storm
But aren’t willing to walk the miles to get there due to fear that it will take too long
Funny how the educational system is only convenient to those who are already educated
Segregating the hungry ones who are guaranteed to be the most motivated
We are desecrated but necessary
Yet celebrated only in February
Appreciated only when our bodies lay buried in cemeteries
Black mothers still losing their sons to street fatalities
Daddies still losing their little girls to discreet sexualities
But if we place more effort into the future as we do in the present
The self-destruction of our race would be greatly lessened
I …am…straining to break the chains of psychological slavery
Striving to transform my fears into bravery
Tip-toeing to heal the burns on my feet from the auction block
Exerting anger into change everyday non-stop
And holding my breath so I don’t inhale
The smell…
Of strange fruit
Yes, we have been scarred by our ancestors to feel things we didn’t physically go through
But it’s up to me and you
To decide what we shall choose…
To do
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