A Lamentation - Day 4

Honestly, they’re lucky it took this long to happen.

How long did they expect to continue to abuse us.

It’s already been way too long.

Truthfully, who cares about these corporate wares they charge us too much for anyway.

They were probably made by the hand of some brown child for far below a living wage,

Or some falsely, wrongly, excessively convicted person because slavery is still legal if you’re a “criminal.”

Seriously, what else can we do at this point.

Talking, reasoning, and appealing to a better nature that most likely doesn’t exist has gotten us nowhere.

So all we have left is unbridled rage.

Surely, the Daughters of Revolution understand this position.

I mean didn’t their ancestors reach the same conclusion and set that British ship ablaze.

Well it’s our turn now to declare liberty or death.

“And before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free.”

*Photo from NY Daily News

A Lamentation - Day 3

I’m 47 but this tired I feel is 400 years old

Way too many years asserting our humanity

To have it still be disregarded.

Too much information for the willfully obtuse to claim ignorance

Way too many dead for way too many generations for it not to be purposeful.

This is not a happenstance

There is no glitch in the programming

This inequity is by design

This is genocide.

So, do you think I care if property is destroyed?

Why not burn down what we’ve built brick by brick

But have never been able to fully enjoy?

We just want a chance to live into our full humanity

And like Fannie Lou said,

“If we can’t have it, then you ain’t gon’ have it either.

They know what they’ve done to us.”

A Lamentation – Day 2

If I die by the state, don’t let them speak lies of me.

Don’t let them smear my name.

If they dig up obscure truths of me,

Weave them into the beautiful tapestry of my life,

And paint my flaws with the brush of humanity.

Don’t settle for termination.

Don’t acquiesce to a quiet slip into anonymity.

Don’t take an apology rooted in complicity and not contrition.

DO NOT offer forgiveness before there is justice.

Shake the city to its foundation

Rock the nation at its core

Let them feel the rumble of your collective lamentation

Let no mind sleep. Let no heart rest.

My family who loves me, Speak for me.

My sisters in the struggle, mobilize the people.

Those who do justly and walk with God, Put your faith into action.

Those who use their pen as swords, tell them my story.

If I die by the state, I’ll be far from the first

But do not let them diminish its significance.

Every one of our lives matters.

Despite what they say, Our lives matter.

A Lamentation - Day 1

Sleep comes slowly if at all when a heart is pierced.

And what thoughts ramble through a listless mind robbed of rest?

Maybe that is the entire goal,

To rob us of the creativity that has us survive in spite of it all.

To convince us that we are powerless,

as they siphon our power to uphold their devious systems.

Look how grand we are even in the face of oppression.

They can not bear the thought of our grandeur if we were totally free.

More importantly, they can not profit from our genius.

White supremacy is the enemy of progress

How many of the world’s answers are burdened under its boot?

What liberatory advances live weighted down,

In American Ghettos, Caribbean Shanty Towns, African Refugee Camps?

What new worlds sit dormant behind the words “I can’t breathe?”

The problem is not us. It has never been us.