The Positive Prime, a book of Poetry, Page 2

  His struggle is our struggle

  An uphill battle,

  Against the odds,

  (Lost cause?)

  Will there be any mountaintop?

  His courage and brass,

  To bite the irony,

  The arrogance to fight

  Knowing that a lost is (still) a win!

  But the fight will continue

  In his name!

  We do not own one life

  Nor is it ours to have.

  It is the privilege to get a life

  We are only given-

  If it is a fight that we get

  Then fight we must!

  We only have the will-

  Peace.

  (From the will in William)

  In memory of, and inspired by the lives, of William Tiny Jones, William Oba Perry, and William Bill Sykes

  JUNKIES

  Thoroughbreds tremble

  As they anxiously

  Await

  To be mounted

  By their monkeys

  THE BIG O

  If Oprah gave me a dollar

  Then, I would holler'

  'Cause money do not talk

  Money yells! (Like my father would say!)

  If the whole world changed

  To hear her name

  I'd call her my saint.

  But I am not, 'cause I can not.

  I love rich people to death

  But it don't help myself

  To hear what they say

  'Cause there is a price to pay

  Is how rich got that way!

  I believe that it is great

  For you to have that fate

  (And I love your feats)

  I know that I may cry

  If you should ever go away

  You pushed and pulled your way to the top!

  Now, you pulling and pushing

  About everybody!

  Just try not to break

  The skin-

  That line is thin-

  I can only improve me

  Money is nice to see!

  MARTIN - (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

  It is as though he walked in his sleep.

  Through the streets of Birmingham

  Marched on Washington

  And all about,

  -A sleep walker.

  Dreaming

  He had a dream-

  He shouted!

  As if he saw the eyes of God

  On that Mountaintop there,

  "I may not get there with you...,

  Longevity, (God explained to Martin),

  Would be good... [Of course, you could do more]

  (Tell them that)...Little black boy and little black girl,

  And little white boy and little white girl,

  You see, will be walking, together,

  Hand and hand..." (King, M.L. 1968)

  Martin, who, was a man of God,

  No more, no less, is all.

  It was no mystery-

  He was called to preach, to serve.

  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(Matthew 11:30)

  So that he took on the Mountain and he has reached the Top.

  We will remember that he walked in

  A dream,

  Through-out this nation,

  That one day,

  We will awake!

  A promise made is the promise kept.

  -Its the Promised Land!

  RAP MUSIC

  Will you take the rap music?

  Will you take the rap?

  Will you take the rap music?

  Can we rap about it?

  The rap is the worst I saw,

  They defile and disrespect

  Everything,

  That I rapped about.

  They sold me out!

  Will I take that rap?

  It came from my adolescents

  Who like me had protested those before?

  Pops! You are too slow-

  You will feel the cold.

  Can't play any more!

  The beat goes on forever!

  Let us rap!

  Because they never will

  In that tree of life

  They take another bite

  'Hell what difference will it make?

  When ours words,

  Good' means bad.

  Well they rap that bad means bad!

  You say that you will never rap

  Or talk about it.

  Is his mother not your wife?

  Are you not the produce of a woman?

  Will you take that rap?

  How far do you go back?

  In the tree of real life,

  Have you really fought the fight?

  I dont think I can wait for it

  To get right!

  I rather be right now

  I rather be happy,

  I am!

  Never questioning myself

  (Intellectualizing)!

  'Less I burn in hell!

  The rap music

  The paraphrased- paradise!

  - A video flavor -

  Most are still too confused

  Of the muse!

  About who is who and what it is

  What is real and what is fantasy

  And what is not.

  'Less we burn in it

  To feel the raft-

  So, take another bite.

  What difference does it make?

  Let's rap (about) music,

  And stop talking ('bout your but)

  About youre wearing the mask! (P. L. Dunbar, poet)

  I DONT KNOW NO BLACK PEOPLE

  I do not know black people

  I being black, I just know people.

  I know some white people

  Because I am not white people myself.

  I was on the subway today standing

  The train came into the station and a person gets up in front of me.

  So there was a seat in front of me that I could have taken

  But feeling conscientious, at that moment,

  I then looked out on the platform to see who was coming onto the train.

  It was a kind of elderly lady with a group of kids getting on.

  So, I moved away from the seat to let her,

  Who came on the train looking to, have that seat.

  Man, I said to myself I could have sat down

  And I would have been very embarrassed-

  And you know,

  May not have gotten up  yeah!

  But I saw these people would need a seat or two.

  These people were so-called black people

  But I did not see any black people

  I only saw a kind of elderly lady with a group of children.

  (Ill just say, because it is too late!)

  If I had seen them as some black people maybe I would not have cared,

  Or would have to force me to remember that they are people too!

  You know, she had a West Indian accent.

  TO BLACK WOMEN

  I find it very hard to stomach

  Today  who I see!

  It was my sister before

  But now I dont know.

  You remember me

  How much I loved you so!

  Not just in my heart

  But as my equal

  But now I am lost- by myself

  Because my equal has no sugar

  You grew up and blew up,

  You are too phat!

  Your beautiful Afro went like another fad

  Your butt got phat like another wig

  (Excuse me if I never make another rhyme,

  It may not be the time.)

  You laid, you played, and you stayed

  But I had to go away.

  So that I can still fight another day

  Or should I say, so that I may

  Love again.

  But I cannot love who I see

  You are not any part of me


  And I do not want you to be

  You never cared for baby boy

  You just wanted to be the man,

  Remember the cost to be the boss!

  But we who see understand

  And were not fooled

  Nor are we gay,

  It has not been that long

  Since Marian sang her song

  That we black men know where we belong

  Yes! Master or should I call you missy

  You arent anything with out me

  Dont you see, that today we are nothing

  Not that I want to cling-

  But we did not write that song I sing.

  And we have not written our story together

  Still! We are nothing! Dont you see!

  If our mothers dont care for us

  Then why the hell should I care for us

  If you really want to be the man,

  Then be the woman!

  (Silence Is Golden!)

  Let me explain a little more:

  Fourscore and then some more

  Our forefather, not foremother, started this country,

  Based: on the liberty for all, except me- the black man.

  -A women was without herself-

  Your fight was not, I was you -

  You were not hated to walk this earth,

  I was! You did not begin to hurt

  You were ignorant to pain.

  You are yourself today from here to Africa

  Have you yet felt the pain?

  Do you feel me walking on you back?

  Like a woman in fear can you cry out yet, my woman?

  I do still cry tears, on your behalf.

  The woman has not cried out in pain!

  I dont stand, but I am.

  We are!

  If you were my half sister

  You still would be my woman

  Black woman, you see

  It is not love, but it is (love)

  It is not a fight, but there still is (a fight!)

  We will not be played!

  Until the Sun calls you white

  And until it calls me blue

  We are called together.

  STREET CHANGE

  In the year 20--,

  As President,

  As leader of America,

  And as God to the free world,

  My first decree

  Today, I give everyone

  In this land permission

  To use the sacred N word

  You can call me a nigger.

  [As only President Pryor before me would have had it]

  I give the people, all people

  Black, white, red, brown and yellow in America,

  Permission to use the word (nigger) again

  It is a word that we will have to learn to embrace

  Yes, even we Afro-Americans, Coloreds and Negroes

  Must remember the word, nigger.

  The sacred N word can solve all racial ailments

  There are in our nation today.

  Because it has a magic of its own,

  We had to take it away years ago [not ready],

  But today, we need it.

  The N word has our history in it.

  Yes it has meaning, a powerful meaning

  We have not been able to understand [not ready].

  So today we will embrace it.

  We will not be scared of the N word any longer

  All men, all women and all children must learn to know it

  No longer can we hide from it by not saying it

  Calling it the N word, no longer can we hide behind it.

  By saying it too often and anywhere in any sentence

  So that it will not be heard.

  (An empty wagon makes the most noise!)

  We cannot continue to make love to the word, either!

  A word that we do not love!

  (And I dont think it love us, either!)

  And I cannot laugh at that word, again!

  Boycott the nigger jokes!

  Until we understand the history of the N word

  Americas history!

  That is the history of slavery, here in America.

  Then and only then, will The FCC, the FBI, the NAACP,

  The Congress, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Police Department

  And the Boards of Education STOP hiding behind it,

  Or will they stop going to bed with it.

  Wall Street made is lifes blood from calling it by the N word

  We have to end it somewhere.

  Yes!

  As Your president call me a nigger!

  And with your last breath find out

  What it means to American History the word, Nigger.

  By the way, my second decree to help us out with my first

  And with the transformation,

  I am changing the name of the famous NYC Street

  From Wall Street to Nigger Street!

  BLACAUSION

  Trapped in a temple

  -The embodiment-

  The product of racism

  Hate wrapped in bundles

  We cannot live without it

  Can we live with it?

  What we are!

  Its the shame

  Its the names

  All the same

  Playing the game!

  We are still the sons and daughters

  Of a great people

  We are survivors

  Still my tapped blood flows

  Against the tide, flowing upstream

  Still hated for who I am

  Still the hate from inside me

  Because I am the sons and daughters

  Of slave masters

  I am asked a silly question,

  About where do I come from?

  I have to ask myself

  Where am I going to?

  -Who is your daddy?-

  I just am!

  I am still here!

  Born like a cripple with limbs

  That did not work

  Like the blind without sight

  Like the deaf,

  I am like those who are crippled

  By the hate, the fear, and ignorance

  I still survived

  I survive even as the butt of a joke!

  We survive even as we did boar the yoke.

  People cannot deny people

  Gave rights we all have.

  They must joke and lie

  As their reasons why that they give.

  We continued to live

  We continued to walk

  We understood and we comprehended

  That those who have taken away

  Gave it to themselves

  Then, they tell us that

  They are much better than us

  Because they have our rights in their hands

  While they seem to have so much more!

  It is a simple magic trick,

  Not done with mirrors,

  But administered by a whip!

  (Whos tripping?)

  You are not the master of me!

  I am not that freak of nature.

  I was stolen from my land.

  Tell the truth half-brother and half-sister

  We are in the same family, the same world

  There is only one way left to go up

  Not on my back!

  Chapter 2 -

  THE ROOM WITHOUT A WALL

  MY GIFT

  A father, who loves me

  Puts a pen in my hand

  Gives me his words and makes them mine.

  It is all the beauty there is

  The love of a child

  He asked nothing of me

  Because he gave it to me

  As only love can (give)

  And that is what I am

  Given what I have.

  I am not better for my gift

  Or because of it than you

  Who reads or sings or thinks about this po
em

  Love asked not!

  My gift is only shared,

  If you do- (read it)

  ROOM WITHOUT A WALL

  What is a room without a wall?

  I guess nothing at all

  If I saw a sight like this

  I would run to an analyst

  But wait don't be hasty

  A story as this one

  He would think I am crazy.

  But wait.

  I did not see it at all!

  Because who sees a room without a wall.

  LUST

  Devil may care!

  My soul burns for you

  But I do not know why?

  I just hunger for food

  If I do not eat then I forget

  I am hungry.

  Until I eat again

  And I remember how I was very hungry.

  Can I suppress?

  Lust!

  My burning desires

  And I cant just go hungry?

  Quenching it behind

  Those locked doors!

  MY MISFORTUNE

  Never was I to be rich

  Because rich I am not.

  I can not count how many

  Diamonds it takes?

  To change a light bulb-

  I do not want you to call

  My name

  There is only one voice

  I listen to  one at a time.

  I do not need a pat on the back

  Unless you give me one

  True happiness is to know

  That I do not have to find it,

  Anymore!

  God is Love, so I should not

  Want.

  My peace is that I am just

  Like you!

  LAND

  Newton proved that gravity

  Keeps us on the land

  In which we stand.

  Land is a fact-

  Like skin color

  And it is as important.

  (Like skin color)

  You can take the fellow

  Out of the country;

  But you cannot

  Take country away from the fellow.

  (Poor sap!)

  So if you land on your feet,

  You will see it is not

  The land which you should praise,

  But the feet on which

  You stand.

  INTELLIGENCE

  Intelligence is the knowledge

  That there is more in-which to tell,

  The story is not complete.

  Sometimes I wish

  The damn story is over,

  Or no one says a thing more.

  Wisdom is when I can

  See that end.

  But, I do not have to be the person who ends the story

  Period!

  When finally we understand ourselves