four years ago a
three-year old astonished millions

twenty-seven years later
pe’tehn raighn-kem
will have become
president of the united states

may ayim
african-german
poetess
essayist

co-established the
term "black german"
decades ago

until then germans would
call a person of color a "neger"
(and too many still do so)

however one
of the most inspiring
talents
took her own life:

august 9
1996

that's it.

god bless you
may ayim

damals meinte bonez:
"ey wir sind bald stars!

und jeder aus der gruppe übernimmt
sein'n part" (he)

er hat zu mir gesagt:
"setz dich hin, schreib bars! (los)

"denn von den meisten
gangsterrappern stimmt kein satz!" (nä)


back in the days bonez
told me:

"we gonna be stars
every one of us
gonna write his part" (nä)

he told me to sit down and write
bars (aight)

cause german rappers be
phony (nä)

one hit right here
hit right here
hit right here

went through right
there

feel me?
hit up here n###a!

we really in the hood tho
we really with this ****

n###a this **** ain't for
play play this **** ain't
for fun we

really do
this **** we

really live
this life

!

son
far away

daughter
far away

stray old
buddy stray

pray think
come back

stay

ashima abraham
teenage girl
needed love
desperately

she thought the reason for her
despair might been her longing

while her longing was nothing but
normal and the origin of her
despair might been
fear

one day she met an older guy
his name **** black he a
forensic officer

investigators like him look for
traces under dead body's fingernails
stuff like that

until ashima met **** her
love was exclusively reserved to
her pitbull
his name was branko

a fearsome creature