how many more times do we say their names?
how many more times do we make signs and march? how many more times do we hashtag Black lives matter? how many more times do we just send thoughts and prayers? how many more times will we hear the murderers say they were in fear for their life when the video clearly shows otherwise? how many more times will cops lie and concoct a narrative to defend their actions then get put on paid administrative leave? how many more times will the media portray the victims as being responsible for their own death? how many more times will the jury find Blackness so threatening that they justify the aggression of violent murderers, and the verdict comes back not guilty? how many more times will we go back to living our lives until the next person of color is murdered because their skin is weaponized, and we post another rip? how many more times? because i’m tired...
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When you’re shot down in cold blood in the streets
When you’re choked out for selling loosies pleading “I can’t breathe” When you’re still breathing lying helpless on the ground under white sheets When GoFundMe’s are set up for funeral costs and killer’s lawyer fees When the system’s been broken, ain’t no justice, no peace When another hashtag and video footage makes you madder and sadder When paid administrative leave leaves pigs pockets fatter When I’m in a constant rage cause it seems Black Lives don’t Matter I’m still unapologetically Black You can’t break my spirit You can’t make me fold You can’t kill my vibe You can’t take my soul After slavery, lynchings, bombings, Jim Crow, and mass incarcerations My people... We’re STILL unapologetically Black! I am an example of resistance
I hang from manufactured rope On the Tree of Life I didn't live a Brothers Grimm fairy tale Conceived into oppression I was wise beyond my years But I've never received a White man's education Only domination I was bought and sold like sheet metal I've been called boy Inferior to my Superior I've been violated and raped No one heard my screams I was tamed like an animal I was a field hand and a house nigger I've picked the fabric that creates My Master's shirt I've wiped his children's noses And prepared his daily meals I've tried to escape to new freedoms Only to be brought back to plantation land My footprints were imprinted in Southern soil I've been beaten without reason My whips never healed I was fed up with His rules I rebelled Now my lifeless body dangles Helplessly Before you from a noose My legs sway to and fro My eyes are blood-shot red I am an example of resistance This is dedicated to my ancestor's who paved the way so that I may live freely today. I was listening to Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and my mind wandered. I imagined the "strange fruit" telling his life story to the people who watched him die. *A poem from "Just My Thoughts: Mind, Body & Soul", published July 18, 2006. welcome to the forgotten poor
underfunded schools, a Chinese spot, the projects, and a busy liquor store this is all she sees when she walks out the door her momma tells her to study hard so she can have more every day the little girl writes in her composition notebook one story is about this five course meal and the lives that it took short story with a moral, teach a lesson like fables a little food for thought to feed the mass behind your navel first course (soup) first to the block where the corners stay open cause the dealers don’t stop and the pigs stay looking for their next quota and everyone thinks they’re Ray Liotta destined to be “a made man”, but they don’t understand they’re the reason why there are fiends coming back like loyal fans for assorted brands transacting into non-melanated hands if politicians were only this sympathetic when the crack epidemic began second course (salad) here come the dirty boys in blue with nothing better to do profiling innocent people of a different skin hue thinking they’re above the law, beatings and shootings ensue they claimed they feared for their lives, camera footage purview getting slaps on their wrist for brutality they do then it’s back to the streets to target another like you third course (appetizer) now peep these two men arguing it’s hood beef their harboring one stole a chain and the block that he claims so he steps to the dude, figures gun fire will heal his pain one stray in the park and my best friend’s slain her momma screaming and crying hide her tears when it starts to rain but the memory of that day will remain fourth course (main dinner) next to the project bench where a little kid sits trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents and he feels it’s only common sense to give to the poor and take from the rich so he and his friends plan to hit a lick steal a man’s wallet and carjack his whip plan goes wrong, strapped man strikes back local news reports kid and friends got capped fifth course (dessert) you see the street prostitutes dressed like vixens in video shoots they hoe-ing the cooch just to get the hooker loot when they finish what they started give a customer the boot back to where they departed waiting for a horn toot hitting more balls out the park than legend Babe Ruth and the pimps in the cut stacking profits in zoot suits if you eat what you’re fed and that’s all that you know then you’re conditioned on familiar and that’s probably how you’ll grow unless you beat the status quo not only is she
smart, gorgeous, funny, and kind she is a bad-ass that one is magic she is next level epic dope beyond measure a child of the sun melanated perfection she is mother earth she is flawed yet fierce complicated yet simple worldly and divine built to withstand all she is a superpower mind, body, and soul don’t test her gangsta she is not to be fucked with she will cut a bitch her worth and value are not subject to discounts you must pay full price indescribable you can’t put her in a box she defies labels they talk about her... who does that girl think she is? who she wants to be! |
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Handwritten short review by legendary poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator Nikki Giovanni for "Just My Thoughts: Mind, Body & Soul"
"It's not a #1 record but Just My Thoughts: Mind, Body & Soul catches the times of the heart and minds. Thank you so very much for sharing with me."
Poetically, Nikki Giovanni (excerpt) (side note: It's dated one day after my 22nd birthday! I cried and died when I saw that part!!) #Won'tHeDoIt! Yasss!!! Dear J.D. -
I'm delighted to grant permission. Good luck! Keep on keeping on. Poetically, Nikki Giovanni (her response to allow me to use her review for promotion) (side note: This is dated two days after her 67th birthday!) This is Nikki Giovanni's review for my still unreleased book of poetry, "R.I.S.E."
THIS is why I'm NOT stopping! Celebrated ICON, poet, memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou acknowledged receiving my book with this kind card!
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