What does it mean to be free?
I look down to my hands and my feet and what do I see?
Not shackles, not chains, not confederate flags,
not the fields and not the pains
Of my ancestor who were slain
Who worked in the sun and in the rain
What does it mean to be free?
Does it mean to go to college and get a degree?
Does it mean to live with your head held high and your eyes wide shut?
To live with that uneasiness way down in your gut
To keep your mouth shut and your head off the platter
To many, it seems they’d rather do the latter
What does it mean to be free?
Momma never told me, that’s something that in her lifetime she probably never got to see
Something in her lifetime she never got to be
You can take the shackles off a person and they still won’t be free
Because you destroyed their minds years ago to an insurmountable degree
You, you wretched system
You took my culture, took my last name
You try to steal all my remakes but that’s all in vain
You hate me, and you wish I’d fall
You wish I never find freedom but I got the wake up call
You keep chasing me, like my name’s David, and yours is Saul
Because for decades that wretched system put the necks of my people up against a wall
But I got my hands up, I’m ready for a brawl
Yeah I’m ready to do it all
I’m ready to throw you like a football
But best believe I’m coming for you last like an 8 ball
Because you see, for far too long I’ve been trying to be free
And all along you keep promising me
All the freedom I could want at just a small fee
The fee Martin Luther King jr, he paid in blood
The fee that Malcom X paid in blood
The fee that Emmit Til paid in blood
The fee that Trayvon Martin paid in blood
And now here we are, trying to get what’s been promised
And what will it take us, more blood?
Aug 3, 2016
Aug 3, 2016 at 6:29 PM UTC
What does it mean to be free?
I look down to my hands and my feet and what do I see?
Not shackles, not chains, not confederate flags,
not the fields and not the pains
Of my ancestor who were slain
Who worked in the sun and in the rain
What does it mean to be free?
Does it mean to go to college and get a degree?
Does it mean to live with your head held high and your eyes wide shut?
To live with that uneasiness way down in your gut
To keep your mouth shut and your head off the platter
To many, it seems they’d rather do the latter
What does it mean to be free?
Momma never told me, that’s something that in her lifetime she probably never got to see
Something in her lifetime she never got to be
You can take the shackles off a person and they still won’t be free
Because you destroyed their minds years ago to an insurmountable degree
You, you wretched system
You took my culture, took my last name
You try to steal all my remakes but that’s all in vain
You hate me, and you wish I’d fall
You wish I never find freedom but I got the wake up call
You keep chasing me, like my name’s David, and yours is Saul
Because for decades that wretched system put the necks of my people up against a wall
But I got my hands up, I’m ready for a brawl
Yeah I’m ready to do it all
I’m ready to throw you like a football
But best believe I’m coming for you last like an 8 ball
Because you see, for far too long I’ve been trying to be free
And all along you keep promising me
All the freedom I could want at just a small fee
The fee Martin Luther King jr, he paid in blood
The fee that Malcom X paid in blood
The fee that Emmit Til paid in blood
The fee that Trayvon Martin paid in blood
And now here we are, trying to get what’s been promised
And what will it take us, more blood?
Request permission to use this poem