Get out of our way

You Louis XIV

Wolf in Donatella Versace

Stepping into our country

To huff and puff away our industry

Moral diplomatic

Line up the half dead lives

Behind a budget

Congress can stand behind

Motherfucker

People of color

Can't decide what's worse

Being invisible

Or being a curse

 

Ain't no nigga in college

But ain't supposed to be

no rape

No suffering

No theft

there either

Yet here we are

Disappointing each other

 

I guess that as I

Wade through this

World of fantasy

I paint different pictures for myself

To believe in

Worship the goddess of knowledge

she can fly you out of this hell hole

As white as her purity swore to be

her intentions were just the same

And I had to dig the

Story of buried black queens

On my own

 

Left to be a

page ripped out

Of the white man's book

It was never ours to keep

Because beauty and history don't mix

This world is ugly and a ruler has to

be in touch with his subjects

And where were my brethren to save

Me?

Dead and surviving on the streets

Playing their hands for mercy

A trade in suffering

 

A home in ruins

Mothers of mothers

Fathers of fathers

Taking what they

Wish to be

Temporary care of granddaughters

Whose parents are permanently

Forgotten

 

Who would suspect a black man

Dying

And a black woman missing

As her own son

Became another man

In her life to die

On the street she crossed to the

Bodega

 

To have their eyes

Blinded by white hot

Lies

As walking swine

Gouge them out

shove the mix down our lungs

So we eat the tragedy we see

Hang us half to death

with poverty

So that while we gasp

We won't afford to scream

Break our legs

To keep us on our knees

And sew a mase into our heads

400 years of forced slavery

And future of self-imposed

Shaken and stirred into nothingness

Because a brain dead nigga

Can't find a reason to think

 

But I cleaned the mess

I knew there was something inside

Me

Something hidden in plain sight

Something you've been distracting me from,

I took my dried, shattered

Brain matter

And when I put the pieces back to where they belonged,

I realize that having to learn

From a 20 year old textbook wasn't

My fault,

And quoting Shakespeare

Before I allowed Maya Angelou

To breathe into me,

Was not of my own doing

 

Who could blame my teachers

For trying to paint us white

It was only camouflage,

you may think white is godly

But even they can't kill what they can't see

My parents took solace in thinking

That they couldn’t see me

And I've been sneaky

Throwing golden apples

In front of admissions,

it must make you sick

To watch a black girl

Get an education,

72,000 is too expensive for a nigga,

 

Especially if you didn't even get to check

Her teeth yet,

Especially if she ain't gross

Three times those free books,

And that free studio, and that free bed,

Watch her get pregnant and waste

White time on bouncing black

Checks,

Watch us hunt that bitch down

Make her run fast enough

To get whiplash when she

Turns her head to

Checks for us

Because check this,

My brooklyn

Clipt

Vernacular quicker than my feet

When I skip

The rocks being thrown

At my face,

Light enough for sleep niggas

Open their mouth

And sing praise,

but too dark to please

Those brighter than me,

 

And they're not looking to maim

But to bruise,

Divide and conquer,

But nigger is all they think when

They look at you

You are not a subset

You are under the umbrella,

Make room for yourself in this

Tenement,

Because everyone else is trying to

Make room for themselves ,

And they won't be above killing you

For yours

 

A nigga tryna make it but he don't know

How so,

Monkey see monkey do,

And after officer joseph shot his

Brother,

He learnt to shoot too,

After master Forde hung her mother,

She learned to tie her own noose,

and when they found each other,

They passed down their broken

Traditions because in all this

Schooling,

No one taught them to be whole

 

So for the rest of us

That carved our own history,

With the stones we scavenged to keep,

And those that fought to become

The people

We weren't allowed to be

and the students

Who died to raise a flag

In their hometown,

And the Barrios that

Served as target practice

For invading species,

Let us teach.