Too much to live for

Too much to live for

If you find my lifeless body hanging from a tree,

Know that I have too much to live for,

I am not a fruit that easily grows on trees,

Yet too many trees have fruit that looks like me,

and too many Mamas sobbing hard on their knees,

Knowing that their baby had so much to live for,

Jemima is not my aunt,

Ben is not my uncle,

If you are too busy fighting to keep your belly full

That you have no time to fight to keep my lungs full

I have to let you go 

because I have too much to live for,

There is nothing about my blackness that I need to hide,

So you best believe if I’m hanging it was not suicide,

So hear what I’m saying

cause I say it with pride

I have too much to live for.

it ain't safe yet (a poem for Juneteenth 2020)

Step inside,

There is work to be done,

Step inside,

I said there is work to be done,

How black are you?

Blue black? True black?

And how do you know?

When you speak what words fall out?

And how hard do you have work to lay out the words the world can hear?

Are you ready to defend your blackness?

Cause you gonna have to.

There is no pass, never was one unless you can pass for not being one.

Step inside

Your soul ain’t ready yet.

Your heart is too tender and would make a tasty tar-tar

Your line is not strong enough for you to balance upon as you try to rise above

To hold up, to bring up,

 the ones you love.

Your mind is too small it needs to become a universe

Only then will you truly have a place that is safe.

Step inside

Grow yourself, not your ego

so immense your body can not contain you

Grow your roots

So deep that nothing of this world could possibly unearth you

That no one word,

That no one paragraph

That no one document 

Could ever knock you off your center

Grow your mind

That your wisdom show without the utterance of a word

That your knowledge is attached to every planet of existence

That you know there is no longer anything worth fighting for

That you know the winner of the war still has enemies

That you know peace

That you know peace

That you know….. peace

Then and only then will it be safe to step outside.

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