Poem for young strugglers

A poem for young strugglers

This is not the first time we have thrown rocks and black bodies

At blood enemies
this is not the first time we have martyred our young

We have joined hands and hearts many times to fight this

We have marched

Bloody feet

Hands

Heads

From batons and bullets

In our young minds we forget

That we have done this before

Our old minds want to forget the pain of police batons

And dog bites

The sting of tear gas and the stench that never leaves your clothes

We want to forget the hate that burns us

The crosses burning on lawns

The men swinging from trees

Black bodies put on the line again and again

for what?

What are we fighting for?

Before we have burned

Bombed Black Wall Street
Bombed W. Philly

We have burned down Detroit
Watts

Long and hot summers

Why are they burning down their own neighborhoods?

Burn your cages, burn your cells, burn it all

But when you are finished burning

Be ready and willing, be able to build something new

that works

They/We are purging and burning the things you use to suck our blood

Burn the likker stores

The dollar stores

Check cashing

Smoke shops

Burn the mfs that put little girls on the ho stroll

And the ones that sell rocks to who ever has the money

Burn them too

Burn the shit that does not serve you

But be willing and ready to create something that does

Burn the whole thing

Be willing to sacrifice to get something better

We are.

We have

They say….pull yourself up by your bootstraps

But I have no boots

So I grab my ankles

And you fuck me

We made a mistake by not leaving this land to you

We keep saying we spilled blood here, we fought and died for this

But would the people we came from have done that?

#NaPoWriMo "Poem for Isabelle"

as beautiful as this love could be
as strong as we feel
as wonderful as these words are
they will not make it okay
will not draw you back to me
can’t convince you not to run back into
that firestorm

You will run toward it
because you are afraid of the not knowing
not knowing is the scariest part
more scarier
than anything
“oh I know you better than anybody”
and i knew you were telling me the fucking truth
and i can’t make you love me

#NaPoWriMo Wake up

Wake Up

hey bright baby

you fresh to def

black beautiful and magnificent

shiny star

night bright

wake up time

right?

hey lady

wake up time she said

Lion King that you are

Big Fish that you are
Twin Star that I am

Sunrise

and some brightness

and something sweet

because i’ve been in the night

but today is today

#NaPoWriMo My last apology

if beauty was wealth 

then you'd be rich

for a minute

until the covers fell off

until your hair thinned

until the costume wears out

because it's a gorgeous costume

it's a husk you despise

it is a mask you were given and don't want

but baby I see you

your eyes full of light

there are no innocent tongues here

the mask

it makes them want to get close

even though you can't hardly bear it

to touch

they want

to take care of 

to hold up

to admire 

and look at

but not to see

not to know

not to ask

or challenge

or change

but baby I see you

there are no pure hearts here

The ones who love you are the ones who want to hold you up

and me, like all the rest of your enemies, I dropped you. 

my baby fell, and I failed to run and catch her. 

Where were you Baby? Where were you when I needed you?

"uh..somehere else."

    #fuck

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me" 

"I needed you"

      "Im sorry"
"I needed you"

      "I'm sorry"

and on and on and on

#dumbassfailmantradontnoblackwomanwanttohearfromherman

fail one million times

#fuck

no one is hearing anything

if smart equalled money I'd be balling

i'm the smartest person I know

i make equations in the starlight

i can describe eternity

i see the patterns written in mist and whispers

i know it all

I have all the answers and I listen to no one

but myself. maybe God. certainly not you.

i'm dumbandlonelyandstupid and common sense evades me

i don't see all that I should

even when it's right in front of me

even when it spits in my eye

I don't see

but baby I see you

and I apologize

i begged and cried and pleaded

for the last time

there are no clear eyes here.

that husk is a poor reflection

i remember the nights we laughed and sang and danced and cooked and ate and watched scary movies. 

and the fights 

our life was a honeymoon

for me, that is

and I ache

not just because we broke loves back

but because baby we invited the destroyer to the party

and fed him and loved him

i mourn because 

it will be another lifetime

before I am that close to you again

and you made this one so sweet.

you were my sweet honey/my love, my love.

my butterfly

my hummingbird

my  Queen

maybe it has always been that way

we have certainly loved before, perhaps we will again

but not in this time

noone here is clean

but baby I see you

i have no good way to end this poem. this is my last apology.

Ferguson

my beautiful black people

Hope Lynn Murphy Hoover "Old Black Lady" 1986

we could right now be in our springtime

we could be spinning magic from starlight

making love with sunshine

could be dancing on the Moon and Mars,

mapping Venus

mining Saturn

could be up

several clouds above this life

standing high

we could be shining

we could be at the end of our long hot summer here

in America

but nigga

instead we here dealing with this bullshit

we in August

and it’s hotter than ever

niggas is getting dropped

deader than flies

po animals

got more rights than us

1415-”When yall first started fucking with us”

1619-“Dragged us to this side coz yall was greedy and lazy”

1700’s-”White folks, stealing and killing”

1865-”Fought a whole war just so you could hold people in slavery”

1965-”Hundred years after the war, we still fighting yall so we can live free”

2014-”yep still fighting”

Dred Scott

no rights which a white man is bound to respect

So I know

we in this alone

aint got no choice

but to ride or die

because it seem

we just gon die anyway

finna drop any day

cops, night watchmen, old dudes

whoever

kill niggas

like flies

in Ferguson

no rights