I turned to my *****
as I lit my cigarette.
Hella stressed
I said
"Ain't life a *****?"
We trapped
between the rich and the poor
trying to make it to one
and stay away from the other.
Our people step on each other
to get above one another.
Instead of extending a hand
to help a brother.
Do you know
what they did?
I know
what they did?!
They brainwashed us
to **** each other.
If we aren't killing each other
they plotting
to lock us up with each other
to do a long bid.
The cops, the judges
and the politicians are kin.
They don't want to
give us a chance to win.
They got us separated by
religion, race, and ****** orientation.
To worsen the complication
they got the police waiting
to **** a black male with no contemplation.
Because they say
we are likely
to start a confrontation.
There's no peace.
When I look around
all I see is hatred.
Jesus, Ghandi, and MLK
told us to turn the other cheek.
Will we ever face it?
Forces reaching our soul
through the airwaves and spaces.
All I see is satan.
All I see is masons.  
All I see is the land of the broken,
,lost and forsaken.
We ball up our fist.
Trying to make it through the day
without getting too ******.
Wishin that we could just quit.

**** man,
Ain't life a *****?

No disrespect to women.
This is how I'm feelin.
If she call herself one
then she shouldn't be offended.
If she do then
she see how we ain't winning.
That's why every night
she's up in the ******* sinning.
To catch a ***** slippin
To catch a ***** trippin
To catch a ***** trickin
off his last.
She will give him some ***
Because she need that cash.
**** a paycheck.
She knows this money comes fast.
If he's trippin hard enough
She will run his pockets rough.
Until his soul is gone
And the repo man
is taking his truck.
With every ****** interaction
She loses a piece of herself
in the temporary satisfaction.
Like her soul is being extracted
and if she meets her soulmate
he wouldn't be as attracted
to her soul
because it's all in fragments
Her mind has grown stagnant.

******* it.
Ain't life a *****?

When white men spit hatred through spiteful lips,
what will you do? Will you raise your fists?
When a white man kills a black teen without blinking,
will you turn from protests to riots without even thinking.
You want to prove something?
Prove that there is nothing a white man could do to break the black community.
Show that you will never fight fire with fire. Keep MLK alive, let him live in your city.
Beat hatred unconscious with love, and drown it in peaceful protest.
For, Mike Brown's death was only a test.

i can not even write this
because it will be anti
american
unpatriotic
and an
insult to
the land
of freedom
i was born in.
I can not even write this
because I am the first
generation
daughter
child
born in
the land
of freedom.
I can not write this
because my abuela
will tell me that I am
lebanese
cuban
and i was
born in
the land of
freedom.
i can not even write this
because my Tio
who came to
America
at the age of 6
and had “adjustment”
issues will remind me that
I
Am
American.
Tio will tell me that
I
am privileged.
because I was
born in the
land of freedom.
Abuela will remind me
that CUBA is
dead.
Abuie will remind me
to hush about all things
Arabic and Lebanese
because I am
American
born in the
land of freedom.
She reminds to hush
about the black
eyes
that see past
this land to the past
of other places
that whisper
my name.
They remind me
that I am
American and
not a communist
not a terrorist
not a girl who
hears her name
sung in the winds
of other lands
which i have not
wandered.
Abuela reminds me
to not yearn for
white sandy beaches
with waves that break
on a rock laiden wall.
Abuie reminds me
to ignore the need
for hot sand
beneath my feet
and wafting smell
of foreign spices
that are
unknown
to those born
in the land of freedom.
In the land of
freedom?

What do you do
When your heart yearns for one thing
And your brain wants another?
You listen a little bit to both.
But what do you do
When it is your heart that is in dispute
A half wants one thing
And the other wants another
Is it better to do then neither
Or is it better to mute them both
And listen to the conscience?

What do you do
When your conscience goes to war
With your heart and your mind?
You listen to the majority.
But what do you do
When you know the minority to be true
Because in fact, the heart is forever
In love with the conscience.
It is the mind, the mind it is
That tricks the heart
Into believing that
It is in quarrel with the conscience.

So what do you do, really?
You be a good human
And listen to the conscience.

~Moniba.