Boom. Boom. Tsst.
Boom. Boom. Keck.
Boom. Boom. Bap.
Beats pump, bump loud
Noisy and chaotic
Mad thirsty
Grab a chair and listen, “See…”
Gray scaled gradient.
Lacking empathy and human blood,
A curious contemplation,
Boogie down without a trace of brotherly love.
The perpetrators faceless demons?
Degenerate semen spawn,
Wearing crooked smiles,
Inhuman faces line the crowd.
“Duck ya head!”
Face flat on the ground,
Avoid the hanging fruit,
Or just stand and grin.
“Come on and get in!”
Shine up the heel torn shoes,
Those strange apples,
Twirling in the breeze,
Humid and suffocating,
But finally free.
Hear that dog whistle?
That ringin’ in ya ears,
Bangin’ wildly, the cymbals.
We was interrupted by that Buzz?
“Say cheese, Cous!”
From the East to the West,
Run new railroad tracks?
Chinese and African sweat,
Pile driving souls into spikes.
Unzip those railroad ties,
On that collective hallucination,
Strange and nostalgic machinations.
Been there, done that,
Tell ’em there’s no turning back.
“War!” Brother on brother,
“Hold the line! Preserve our way of life!”
Keep things the way they were.
The gun belts criss-crossing,
White bullets, white stars.
Keep the flag criss-crossing,
White hands around white faces,
White fog covering dark places.
They move no more and just stare.
Blood drying in the evening air.
Matted hair, With dead eyes,
staring straight up into the evening sky.
“Free them all!” Enlist the slave
“March em all out!”
Free them from their cage.
Suit em all up,
Over dark earth…
Hopes of turning the page.
Shoot em all up,
Over red earth…
Firing their misguided rage.
Tell them,
There’s no turning back.
It’s an impossible time hack.
Run them over with progress.
The only way through is forward,
Working toward what the past lacked
“Make America Great Again?”
What do we do until then?
Loud rhetoric, scape-goating,
Manic, panic.
Boom. Boom. Tsst.
Boom. Boom. Bap.
Boom. Boom. Keck.
We are all dying of thirst.
“People want leadership. And in the absence of genuine leadership, they will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership, Mr. President. They’re so thirsty for it, they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.
We’ve had Presidents who were beloved, who couldn’t find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink it because they don’t know the difference.”
– The American President
img src: http://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Black-lynchings-e1423579535724.png
By malakhai jones
(c) Copyright 2016
Posted: 8/31/2016
All I can say to this is one resounding YES.
Thanks Sunshine!
Really powerful, M. <3
Thanks Em!
No matter the color of our skin (which is superficial), all in our country are dying of thirst. And we’re so damned pissed off at the government in general and politicians in particular. I don’t know what it will take to get our country out of this mess, or even if it is salvageable anymore.
Insightful write, M.
Thanks Cathy! I place the blame at our feet as voting citizens and members of the human race. As always, I appreciate your professional eye and insightful responses and feedback.
Wow. I felt the fury in that and the whole piece, especially the ending too with the drinking sand line. If these lynchings had occured without pictures, i would scarcely believe them to be true, yet rationally I know what people are capable of. The recency is sickening. And in some way I cant but help think of Ali in relation to the piece, in terms of his dedication to human rights, a moral standing.
Thanks Fionn! I appreciate the feedback, my man. You hit the nail right on the head. It’d be hard for me to believe as well. The same can be said for the concentration camp victims. The mass of bodies and atrocities is unbelievable that a human being could do that to another human being(s). What’s the most heinous crime is when “good” people sit around and allow these atrocities to happen. The blind eye, if you will. If one is oppressed then all are oppressed.
In psychology terminology that is the bystander effect. People often think they would do something in a situation but don’t. A famous example was in NY when a person was being assaulted and murdered below a block of flats. Nobody did anything. Everyone thought someone else would call the cops or intervene.
From my experience, it takes a lot more good people to prevent something tragic, than it does for scum to begin it.
I agree with you.