"reparations" poems
You Sir, Are An Electrician!
**technocrat
— noun
a proponent, adherent, or supporter of technocracy.**
This city boy was expert at
Turning the lights on,
Unlocking the front door,
Putting new batteries in flashlights,
And calling the handyman to
"Please come upstairs"
When the degree of diving difficulty was a
Positive number.
Also,
Freezing the semi-permanently the DVR,
Triggering alarms,
Killing car batteries,
Making laptops question
Human sanity,
Tearing up when reading,
"Some Assembly Required!"
Raised in a city of experts,
He was unskilled in things electric,
Becoming apoplectic,
When a device had an
On/off switch that ignored him.
Somewhat famous he was,
For engaging the inanimate,
In a verbal dialectic,
Which included words highly phonetic,
But unsuitable for children's ears.
She was raised in rural pastures,
Corn fields used for hide n' go seek,
Riding goats after school
Just for fun,
Familiar with innards of
Deus ex machina, a/k/a
Minor engine repairs, and
Doing what he called,
Making reparations.
IOS7, heaven.
Cabling laptop to external devices,
Icing on the cake,
Dis and reassembling a German coffee maker,
Did not require calling an 800 number.
She never read an instruction sheet
Without pleasurable laughing at
Japanese English.
He was unashamed of his skilled
Unskilled characteristics,
For such is the way of the world
In the human kingdom,
Some of us two handed,
some of us, bi-standers.
But upon occasion,
He would bemoan his fate,
Decry his inability to survive
On a post-apocalyptic Earth,
Like the people on tv and movies.
Periodically he would grow morose,
Listless, at his inability to adapt to a
Point Oh world.
Uncomprehending
Icons and symbols whose meaning
Were wholly unintuitive,
He secretly ashamed of his need for
technological ******
She would sense his frustration,
Wipe away his inner condensation,
Climbing into his lap,
Whispering the following:
**You sir, are an electrician
of words, a verbal technocrat,**
Plumber of the depths where
Few fear to tread, explorer of the head,
Restorer of human paintings unmatched,
Without your ilk,
this world would be unbearable,
Your heart's warming silk
Comforts bodies and souls,
Speaking from experience personal.
Then, she flicked his
On/Off switch,
On.
Oct 31, 2013
Oct 31, 2013 at 2:43 AM UTC
If you can speak your mind
Without a tone of thought towards the things you say,
If you can beat people with words
And blame them for the wrongs you display,
If you can understand what the hurt see
And turn a blind eye,
If you can imagine the wars that have been fought because of you
No would be left to illustrate the catastrophe,
If you can make people love you
Then cast out the people who state their opinion,
If you can openly criticize people
Then threaten the people, who try to fix the wrong done towards you,
If you can proclaim your life’s path as the way to follow
And then judge for any form of rebellion,
If you can finally wave the white flag
Will you finally accept the war reparations that are overdue,
The people’s heart is yours and that’s in it
Because you’ll be the face for the abusers,
Sep 23, 2017
Sep 23, 2017 at 11:38 PM UTC
When the fat ***** spat in my face
and called me a hippie,
I wasn't sure if it was
better or worse
than being called a hipster poser
in the city.
The fat ******
the ****** poets,
the lesbians,
and the saliva
are all the same.
Pointless plot twists in
a headache of trite storytelling.
And you can ask Plato if his
"is-ness" really meant all that much,
and you can ask Bukowski if he
found the celestial kissing the ********
and you can ask the drunken Catholic dukers
if the clover has a **** thing to do with it,
and you can ask the caterpillars that
don't want to be butterflies,
and they'll all bark the same interwoven tune:
nobody is right,
God is a coward,
my boss owes me reparations ,
and any dumb dog spouting off superiority
needs a steel muzzle and a molecular transfusion.
Dec 18, 2010
Dec 18, 2010 at 8:45 PM UTC
We are faults; we are despairing flaws that blemish the surface of our revolving sphere with the intent of making reparations.
We collapse entire cores of foundations and tear down freshly plastered walls with family portraits and decorative ceramic angels hanging from stainless steel nails.
We destroy entire civilizations, coating citizens in molten lava from a volcano that never overlooked them in the first place, leaving future lovers stepping over their remains unknowingly and blissfully clueless.
We are natural disasters; we tear through corn fields, bring down windmills, and rip shingles off of roofs while toddlers sleep soundly under quilted blankets.
But moonlight shoots through your veins and sun burns from the crevice of your chest and I can't help but cup it in my hands and put it in my coat pocket for safe keeping
Aug 7, 2014
Aug 7, 2014 at 8:38 PM UTC
I really wanna write pretty ****
Like about birds singing at night
or the tired steps of the one Mexican maid
as she passes by my house before and after work
I want to write pretty ****
About my mother’s resilience
Her words of encouragement
And the sound of defeat in her “mijo no tengo ni pa’ la leche”
I want to write pretty **** academic **** deep ****
About beautiful man of color
Trying to be anything but black or brown
Girlfriends claiming their white side
The silencing of accented voices
I am dying to write pretty ****
I want to write about her big *** eyelashes
And her fierce makeup
And how her face was flawless when they found her laying there
In a poodle of blood
Why would anyone **** someone so pretty?
It’s as if they hated pretty ****
Like the color of brown and black skin
And green trees and ****
Why do they like to **** pretty ****
Like spirituality and native languages?
And they give nobel peace prizes to ****** up institutions with ****** up policies that push people to desperation, bomb them, starve them, and at the end blame them,
They like to blame pretty **** too
I want to write pretty ****
Like waking up to the bright sun
And driving by the day laborers at home depot
Some of them look so hopeful, and some of them so defeated
Some of them sleep beneath the little tree on the parking lot
Why do you illegalize pretty people?
Ain’t freedom pretty and injustice ugly?
Then why don’t we write about justice and ****
About the caribou not having to be fenced
And native land returned to indigenous peoples
Why don’t we claim our inner beauty
And recycle all them ****** up magazines filled with cropped bodies treated as money, souless bodies,
The fashion industry is ugly
And why don’t obama talk about pretty ****
Like reparations and wealth redistribution
And getting rid of Deportations, Deportations that’s some ugly ****
Jan 24, 2014
Jan 24, 2014 at 3:19 AM UTC
The best thing about the English language is how you can say the most without even using it. And how the two things that make us most human, love, and the life that sits inside of us, can sometimes be switched and mean the same thing.
"I live here."
"I love here."
As in, this place, that came about more slowly than anyone could understand, holds any hope or goodness that was ever apart of me.
This place, the only moment in time where you can correctly lose parts of you that were never made to give away, keeps you there the rest of your life wether you know it or not, regardless if you ever choose to return to it.
But of course you will.
You go back almost every day, and listen for sounds no one could ever hear, you take in every beam of light which had no intention of sliding it'self into such a dark pool of hair that floats so gently above the spine, and yet how could it be anywhere else?
And how could you ever not notice such things?
The world itself is it's own piece of life, and every time we forgot to see it we come closer to being incomplete, we come closer to dying with so much left inside of us.
And if you must die, do so with no dreams left to speak of, with no life leftover to silently wither away in an eternal quiet, and with every word softly landed in every place it was meant to be.
Feb 3, 2015
Feb 3, 2015 at 3:30 PM UTC
Best to absolve
the guilty
to hold pain
overfills the vessel
perpetrator and victim
awash in the same
liquid shame
spill this sorrow
let it become
a drop
in the vast
ocean.
Dec 10, 2015
Dec 10, 2015 at 11:39 AM UTC
first they ruined ************
then they stigmatized grabbing
a woman's **** criminalized
sexism & demanded jail time
w/ large monetary reparations
for varied ****** transgressions
& after all that,
the solution is
simply to make better ****
kids making the **** themselves,
between obsessing on suicide & ******
Aug 21, 2018
Aug 21, 2018 at 7:26 PM UTC
A trowel and an infinite supply of spackle. Leave me to work, friends. I perceive your cracks, everyone, every one. Canyons, hairline crevices, they trace your backs like rain down windowsills. I've never quite been able to predict where the fissure will turn.
A trowel and an infinite supply of patience. Leave me to my duty, friends. Let me fill in your fractures, I can saturate them to their basin with reparations, reconciliations. I will breathe forgiveness, companionship, love, whatever you need onto my mendings, they will harden. Paint over them what shades you will, I’ll hold your hand as you hold the brush.
A trowel and an infinite supply of compassion. Leave me to my compulsion, friends. Maintain my repairs, I beg of you. You let them become brittle and they flake off of your faces like paper Mache masks. You, let the paint fade. Your work, our work, to fix the fissures, it’s crumbling through your fingers, outstretched, dumbfounded you stare. Pick up the trowel and spackle your own canyons. Spread the fleeting putty across your faces till your eyes cry dust when you blink.
Oh look, upon your left eyelid. A fracture. A trowel. Leave me to my love, friends.
Apr 13, 2013
Apr 13, 2013 at 11:59 AM UTC
Race-baiting covers for agit-prop agents
splitting white hairs in their dark distress;
with name-calling, bullying, lunch money payments
and shifting the blame for their people’s mess.
Reparations are due for your boring screed
that you scrawled at the helm of the Black Star Liner.
You owe it to those who were forced to read
your obtuse agitations (you Afro-whiner).
Poisonous shout-outs to fallen comrades:
holy Saint Michael in reaper’s hood—
endless blathering racial tirades
poor comrade—your dreams are misunderstood.
You’re obsessed with injustice. That’s nothing new.
You’re a David anointed to overthrow Saul—
(as long as he’s white and less rabid than you,
oh prophet and scribe of the activist call…)
Stay mad at the system. Revile all your foes
with raving, with preaching, with bitter bad words.
Insult all your enemies; list all your woes
as you document stink on your turds.
Apr 8, 2016
Apr 8, 2016 at 6:04 AM UTC
poems are also my offspring
orating and orchestrating
a million word march
reshaping freedom
respecting boundaries
boundaries apologize at the end
giving reparations to my language
ceasing to exist among gratitude
Aug 24, 2016
Aug 24, 2016 at 2:37 AM UTC
love
a
vulnerable
and
fragile
relationship
of
reparations
towards
a
quiet revolution
inside of
the
temple of peace
Apr 16, 2019
Apr 16, 2019 at 1:47 PM UTC
approximately forty forked tongues
made love to my ego yesterday
for envy,
and in this way they paid me
my overdue reparations.
i'm cool with that, bro.
what else you have for me?
exactly five tickling fingers
graced the nape of my neck today
for boredom,
for monogamy,
and in this way the human finds
that he's been human all this time.
fine with me, miss forbidden.
tell me, what's next on the agenda?
what conquests await me
just inside Freedom's gate?
two eyes for fifteen-odd-something teenage girls
gets to be confusing,
but
it's better than the day-after-day,
week-after-week,
month-after-month,
year-after-year
quicksand whirlpool of
"oh, i wonder what's on the one-track telly today?"
and only getting some advertisement for
quote unquote
******* miraculous" Axe body spray.
May 24, 2011
May 24, 2011 at 6:23 PM UTC
You used to disappear for months at a time
I was too young to understand but I did anyways
You hurt me like you hurt yourself
The difference is I remember
As children we were sad and tragic misfits
Hell bent on escape of some kind
You used to try to jump out of second story windows
Enough to break eternal but not to close your mind
I found you once trembling in the kitchen
In your pocket was a handful of capsules
Ran for help and with reinforcements recommitted you
You told me I could stop you now but there would be a tomorrow
Your depression worsened and school became your nemesis
You singlehandedly proved how cruel and evil children can be to others
A victim of your instability and chemical imbalance
A social untouchable, they kicked you and you scampered under the porch
The progression across the spectrum of moods made you manic
I could handle you when you had lost hope, but you became unpredictable
Needing everyone’s help, you couldn’t bear to act alone
Always making scenes we were bashful when in crowds
I picked you up after class and you showed me your self-assigned art project
Your room was filled with them, scribbles on the walls
Poetry and carved incantations and letters
Just the way you were when you lived in the hospital
I will always remember when I was first allowed to visit
Your expression dull, eyes dead and voice hoarse but constant
Your babble was brilliant even though you spoke in tongues
Drew me equations, diagrams, promises and master plans
I keep them still and hope that you will make no replications
Reminder of the horror that goes into reparations
Dec 14, 2010
Dec 14, 2010 at 3:34 PM UTC
We were born in a world that didn't want us, tried to swim in waters that wanted to drown us. Living in a world where mans deep rooted connotations regarding our pigmentation was fueled by medias accusations. We ain't have have enough money for the litigations, I guess slavery ain't deserve no reparations. Instead y'all made movies that make you famous. Filming on the tears of many nations. I wasnt even meant to write about this, I was thinking about love. But how does one find the strength to love when breathing is hard
Apr 24, 2017
Apr 24, 2017 at 7:09 PM UTC
In my Country
there's an epidemic of poor posture
with no one teaching us
how to hold our guts
I traveled to faraway lands
to learn the secret
of ******* in my *****
its like walking in between
two closely parked cars
as a young lad
I stood alongside another boy
cream of the crop
slick hair blonde and mine black
one girl left for her choosing
between us side by side
Sadie Hawkins went with the other fella
and I heard the adults behind me wince
it taught me something about my pecking order
in the meat market
yet it turned out the prettiest girl at the dance
still had the last choice
and it was me
we held each other close for a time
and the music played on
white gloves and shuffling black leather, thick soles
Is our name a destiny?
Why did Caleb advise immediately take the Land?
for his faith a bounty
these knights and conquering heroes
conquistador cops
vice squads ICE raids
trade war kinderlagers
borders and the shame
of the human smell
unwashed, ***** tired
I'm not that good, I haven't washed many feet
even my own are ***** sometimes
because my floors collect dust and dirt from the porch
that wasn't swept before I came
but I'm glad to be here
a chess board on the floor
and a fern that might make it
tomorrow
we hope to be better
tomorrow
like a new morning
looking out a bright window
Aug 2, 2019
Aug 2, 2019 at 5:18 PM UTC
Bernie Sanders hatched a scheme
to rant an old progressive theme.
He left the greening mountain heights
to bellow forth for Social Rights
descending to our nation's valleys
milking the faithful at his rallies.
Mr. Sanders sold the farm,
sounded socialist alarm;
Trading professorial tweeds
for bloviating human needs.
He set the lefties all a-twitter
bartering the sweet for bitter.
He glared through academic glasses
at the doubtful working classes
wondering why they failed to note
just why and how they ought to vote.
Sanders patched up race-relations
fixing holes with reparations,
working up his magic wonder:
horsey voice of righteous thunder
till the clouds hung heavy and gray
portent of a darker day...
Warming up leftover Hope
he spared no change for hangman's rope,
sputtering on, he blew a gasket
redistributing our basket
scolding, bellowing, pumping fist
and waving fingers from the wrist
like politburo retro-chic
a tousled old white-headed freak.
Oct 14, 2015
Oct 14, 2015 at 9:05 PM UTC
The outer heart is dense
Made for nothing but defense
But every now and then, something pierces
But when it’s repairing the damage done
What of that which overcomes
It is constantly breaking through, creating lesions
So little the reparations mend
What little alive left to tend
When the tissue is dead and sordidly forgotten
Death will come from all that it's abandoned
Heartbeats constant yet instable
Will bring anyone down to their knees
Heartbeats that become unable
To liberate, only condemned to defeat
The outer heart shall rot and expose
What once was too precious to behold
Is now fighting until its last breath
Ill-prepared and defenseless still
Oft fueled by only pure will
Through all the abuse that the inner heart will suffer
None worse than sabotage by the love of another
Heartbeats lapsed, confused and fleeting
Destroyed after all it had found
Heartbeats faint, profuse bleeding
Drowning in pools on the ground
© 2015 Neal Emanuelson
Oct 26, 2015
Oct 26, 2015 at 8:01 PM UTC
cannot find true rest,
all the tumult in this world,
writ both large and small,
saps my upraised arms
alternate
flexing angry fists eager to strike hard
my revived new **** enemies,
and gods inexcusable and conspicuous absence in
Barcelona, Finland and my own
Charlottesville,
and
to quiet comfort commiserating, and storing
all the pain of individual souls I've acquired willingly
and the sunset comes quiet,
trying to sooth by adding
a gentling cream of cooling breeze,
the squirrels eye me suspiciously,
sensing the amiss within,
and all perfect sailboats voyaging past,
yet none stopping at the dock
to offer condolences or solaces
my watch ticks louder
each tick,
a worrisome cursed reminder
this real life seems to be endless struggle
interrupted by small comforts of little voices and
promises that escape is inevitable
each tock,
a fresh notification
the week's approach will contain
another visit from
Hamlet's ghost,
warning of warring factions
battlefield clashing
in a chesterfield plain
between two of mine shoulder blades
constantly reminded how lucky I am,
makes me grow quiet and put pen to one side,
and try to balance accounts, using this time,
pencil and erasure
I need a break and some glue
I need reparations and a battle plan
or happily learn to surrender
and accept being a
dumb terminal,
a slave,
that doesn't ask for
peace of mind
and knock off this poet of the
no way
Aug 20, 2017
Aug 20, 2017 at 5:06 PM UTC
it was like a car accident- falling in love with you.
painful and unintentional.
i want reparations.
Jun 11, 2016
Jun 11, 2016 at 7:09 PM UTC
Waiting Waiting..........
Always WAITING.... !!!
After A While...
Becomes FRUSTRATING... !!!!!
Like Waiting For A Train...
That’s Gonna Make You LATE... !!!
Because It’s Been............. DELAYED...
Or... Waiting For The Day...
When Girlies Play STRAIGHT...
Instead of... Playing Games...
When It Comes To Getting Laid... !!!!
Ya See Waiting Is A Game...
That ISN’T Fun To Play... !!!
If What You’re Waiting For...
DOESN'T Guarantee Rewards... !!!
Like Music From Producers...
Who Have ALL The Excuses...
For Why It Takes SO LONG...
For Them To Finish Songs... !!!
To Me These Guys Act FUNNY...
When It Comes To Getting MONEY... !!!!!
“We need to be paid,
before we play a single note !
That’s it okay, no time to wait,
or for debate !
If you want your stuff,
to really sound tough !
Pay us up front,
and you’ll get what you want !”
That’s How It STARTS...
UNTIL Cash DEPARTS... !!!
But Then You're Left....
WAITING............................ ..
Waiting... WAITING.... !!!!!
And Then You're Left Stationed...
Unable To... “Move”... !!!!!
Just Like Black Nations....
... Requiring FOOD... !!!
STARVED of Information...
About Your Tunes... ?!?!?
Waiting Like SATAN...
With A Darkened Mood...
Because You Want CLOSURE.
Before Your Composure...
Gets Lost And Confused...
Because These Guys...
... AREN’T Telling You...
When Things Are FINALISED...
... Which Is NOT COOL.... !!!!!
Because INDUSTRY Types....
AREN’T Known For The Truth... !!!!!
Or For Doing What’s RIGHT... !!!
By Artists... Who....
Place TRUST In Them... !!!
These Industry Heads...
Who... Play The FOOL... !?!
But Walk Away PAID...
Even If Your Tunes...
Don’t Sell Or Get Played...
Like... Biebers' Do.... !!!!!
I Guess It’s Like Blacks...
Waiting For Reparations... !?!
Because Your Track’s...
Getting NO Rotation... !!!!
... ON Radio... ???
Or... In Your Own Home... !?!
It’s True.... White Folks...
Play The Same Old Role...
NO Getting Past GO...
Until THEY SAY SO.... !!!
Its The Same Old Story....
WITHOUT Denzel...
Or A Film Called... " Glory "... !!!
BIG WIGS Turn Tricks...
More Than They Make HITS... !!!
And The OTHERS Try To Smother...
By Pulling STROKES Like BUTTER...
When THEY TOO Are...
..... BLOODSUCKERS..... !!!
SICK ********** Type HUNTERS... !!!
Just Waiting For Young Prey...
To ABUSE While They Make HAY... !!!
They Say It’s Just A Game...
That You Have GOT TO PLAY... !!!
If You Want To GET PAID... !!!!
But... Waiting In Vain...
Holds Weight TODAY...
In... Different Ways...
To Bob Marley’s Day.... !!!
Or Maybe Just MAYBE... ?
Things Just WON'T Change....
It’s A STRAIN On The Brain...
For Those... " In The Game "...
Who Play It... STRAIGHT... !!!!!
From Those Who ENTERTAIN...
To Those WAITING For THAT TRAIN ... !!!!!
CONTEMPLATING At The Station...
WHY ON EARTH Am I STILL.....
...... “ Waiting “...... ???
Jun 9, 2021
Jun 9, 2021 at 1:20 AM UTC
The reparations will not be demonstrated...nor will they be broadcasted...televised ...
Change ...?
Would you give it even if a hungry beggar asked...
At your nearest intersection where your time can't be intersected as you're in a grave rush to get nowhere slowly...
...surely you look past his soiled skin...don't dare call him filthy...discusting because karma bent is a soul forever broken...
...be the reparation that repeatedly inspires change
Apr 1, 2014
Apr 1, 2014 at 1:23 PM UTC
***when you accept the ‘I love you’ invite, coolly quietly
understanding this is but a summarizing way of saying,
let’s enter the gated fence to friendship, locking in & out,
the delving reveals to follow are truths more costly than
any fiction, you see only the too real, how much pain can
exist, survive, be survived, quietly thrive, just beneath the
skin’s preternatural strong thinness, holding us in, together
while yet a sieve, separating the granules of our composition,
the coarser fail to penetrate the finer cells, the molecular level
is where the sensory Alice in Wonderland world coexists with
the blunt exhaustion of so much agony, too much, and in the
early morn these words appear of their owned and freed volition,***
do what you must do to repair yourself
***...and you confess to understanding that to heal oneself,
you must heal others, and that separate and unequal
sorrows can somehow heal each other, praying for ex,
exfoliation, exhumation, excalibur, expelling all the ex’s
so new skin self repairs, a great miracle that, and that
human reparations are a thing you alone initiate, inhale,
fostering a belief that !we! is the solution, the only...
5:46am
11/28/20
Nov 29, 2020
Nov 29, 2020 at 6:14 AM UTC
Lately, been on an ego trip
just trying not to flip my ****
or put my fists wherever they'll fit,
meet your skin and feel it rip
Been on a lifelong ego trip
telling myself just to go with it,
feeling lost and trying to sift
through all the ******** leaving matches lit
wherever I go, take a sip but swallow slow
feeling like I'm about to blow,
about to go off & I don't even know
how to make reparations
with all these half-strained relations,
half-numb sensations
eating away at my patience;
hit the ground running; touchdown on pavement
& you can ask me how my day went,
maybe you really do care
about global warming and solar flares,
but it's been rough even trying to comb my hair
hit me up like you've been there
or follow up with one of your blank stares,
but I'm good on that, I think I've had my share
trying not to go off in parking lots and coining insults on-the-spot
one-liner comebacks on-the-dot;
Been on a trip with my ego
just following wherever she goes
but she can take me down some dark roads,
I guess that's why I go with the flow
so much but I'm tryna break out of that
like trying not to swing when you're up to bat,
swimming in **** like a sewage rat,
Been riding my ego cause it gets me high
head in the gutter, middle fingers to the sky
leave my conscience on standby,
shooting shots like a drive-by,
ground zero and time to let these bullets fly
just another petty cry
for something we never knew was a lie
turns out we've been milking our will to live dry;
I think it's time to put our egos aside,
I think I wanna get off this ride.
Sep 6, 2019
Sep 6, 2019 at 9:55 PM UTC