Thursday 4 December 2014

See Demons




I’d do it again
Because I can
And a million more like me
Would do exactly the same
Put me in a uniform
Give me a hood
Show me the history of honor and blood
Give me a scapegoat
Feed me the fear
Make me the weapon
We all desire
For my arrogance is no longer enough
There is no security in the privilege of hate
I need to see demons to eliminate
Keep me righteous
Keep me pure
That I can stand tall on backs once more
When the wind changes
Apples go bad and wolves are alone
But a million more remain
And a million thereafter each generation until further notice
This skin has to mean something after all
Liberty and Justice for all (of US)
Surely not an accident a gift
Of centuries passed in domination
Dehumanization
Exploitation
Construction of a virility untouched
Enlightened bathed in the wisdom of a continent
Which matured in the blood and faeces of the poor, the tortured
Surely not that
Because if they remembered and passed that pain on
The descendants of those poor could not become a scared, hooded, uniformed weapon after all
Could not see every Black Woman as a succubus
Every Black Man as a demon
But would see everywhere mirrors into the ravaged wastelands of our souls
And in our millions, though one by one, could grasp the irony and the cruelty in there
And wrench the evil life from them
Because we couldn’t do it again
Not after this
Never again
Could we?

Tibalt Was an Honest Man




Is he a bridge builder?
Not with these hands
Picking at scabs
Bare feet on shaded sand
Thinking Tibalt was an honest man
Tibalt was an honest man

Is he a priest?
Not with that past
Gazing mid distance
Eyes playing on dead cars
Thinking Tibalt was an honest man
Tibalt was an honest man

Is she a healer?
Not with those tools
Delving into hornet’s nests
Grasping for lost jewels
Tibalt was an honest man, an honest man

A man who let his hate define his speech; his commitment, his pride steer his course
Self destructive mission
A lesson, a mission walking, smoldering
A bastard who never said “I Love Peace.”

Trilogy



In this complex there is no sleep
In the life of the night
Breath falls on unhearing ears and words dig deep inside the flesh
Can’t walk on water but have surely walked in wine
Striving for humility, thinking of fast cars and balladeers
And the feeling underneath
Whilst vanity boils within
Indicators of assumption shared
Hide the schism, hide the fear
When I find my voice
It feels alien to my ear
But when I touch the truth it sings
Echoing in the hollows
Between Ivory and blubber few taboos remain
 but none have claimed me for their own
now we have reached the season of the storms
and I am unoriginal
exempt excommique walking brick paths
watching the chipped masonry float away
we all build our fascias
of stone or flesh
we all squirrel something safe within
but time passes differently here
since that other power breached
and those etched tablets expired an age ago
the titles that defined us, shaped our response, hang in the air,
pretty lies that slash at transformations which shun the frame
the person that I was glows and blurs
the thing that I am becoming moves in spirals
headed south bound