You watch too long but look away fast.
I know you say appearance doesn’t matter.
I get out of my car, ignoring this for both of us.

At most job interviews, you hardly ask me a question.
I see you get your answer by the bewildered look
which causes my face to frown.

The children outside the store
back far away when I go to enter.
You grab them to ensure their safety.

I apologize as a habit.
Though I have done no wrong,
you make me feel a criminal.

I went north a few times.
It was a little better
but you were still there too.

Sometimes you come to work
to complain that I was hired,
but when I don’t work, you call me lazy.

You will surely outlive me,
being present at my funeral
but my life will make you weaker.

The old champion bows her head and drops her torch.
Fatigue has set in after a century of drudgery
And all her commitment shown, no one can question her decision.
Her partisans are bleak and sympathetic
For how long should they ask the weary warrior to keep standing?
The new masses turned away and the poor exiled under law of phylogeny,
There is now no beacon but a rickety fence creakin’
That children fear when blows the old wind, once called freedom.

Hatred. Poverty. Discrimination.
A storm that’s tearing down your house and rocking the foundation.

“This too shall pass.”

I hate to know it, but life is more than an aphorism.
One thousand years ago they didn’t know that the ship would land here.

That Great Red Spot won’t stop
And the red clouds make it quite clear.

Across the surface we see it prove relentless.
You can’t wait out the storm. Silence is not progress.

So if you love your babies, give them the right gear
To brave the climate
Because if one storm passes, the next is just behind it.

No tears if you see my back break
There ain't a limit to what I can take
On my life, you will never awake
In a strange house
With the screaming louder than the smell
I would gladly burn in Hell
Before you live in a car
Washing off wherever you are;
Gas station restrooms or a nasty hotel

No.
You won't ever miss school
Daddy will always take you
And you will never know that life
Or see the things I went through
Inebriated and incarcerated will never be me
I'll work every day to make the life I gave you easy

I'll not raise a hand to hurt you
Don't let that alert you
I'm just here to show you there
Is always a home to go to
And if things aren't always sound
And Mama's not around
You still won't be alone
I know it would be hard but I would keep you strong

No tears if you see my back break
I promise you now that I will work all my days
To see you have everything you need
Don't mislabel me as absentee
If that is how it has to be
I'll see you every minute I can spare

No tears if you see my back break
Only hard work spares the heartache

When you say all lives matter I hear black lives don’t;
An oversimplification of a phrase that held meaning
Your statement was never questioned
You just broadened ours until the guilt lessened

No one need apologize for the crimes of others
I know you never held a gun and you love all the same
But ignoring just breeds ignorance so things will never change
All lives may matter but day after day who is the prey?
Turn on the TV, it’s another black name

Desperation.
Inspiration, Determination.
What it takes to overcome
To do more than what your fathers done.
But always remember that when you succeed,
You left a mother in need
A brother to feed, a child that he didn’t plan for
Some firsts, seconds, and thirds that struggled with you

You can’t help them all
Most will see it as luck
Think you don’t give a ****
Because the media twists tales
And covers the truth up
Shows all the love at the top
How it all seems so ideal, like it just came out of nothing
Because it’s hard to dethrone a king once you’ve been conditioned to love him

Tell them while you were rising
You never forgot but you couldn’t stop fighting
Ask them, did Frederick Douglass’s brother ever see freedom?
Did he hate him for circumstances or did he even get to see him?