Why won’t you put the change in my hands?

You choose to drop it like my ancestors were dropped into a foreign land

Are you afraid that my melanin will rub off on you?

Making your nightmares of ebonics, hip hop and genocide come true

Maybe I’ll paint graffiti all in front of your store

Or pop, lock, and breakdance right there on your floor

I’m poor, uneducated and ignorant in your deceiving eyes

Believing in 40 acres and a mule and all the other lies

Do you think the change I’m getting back I’m spending on spinning rims?

Well if that’s what you feel then the outlook is grim

You might catch one on the chin if you don’t adapt your perception

Because I’m sick and tired of dealing with the deception

So until you come to the realization that a change will arrive

I expect that you give me my change properly so god can bless our lives

LIFELONG TREK

I ride perpetually on mass transit
Pass rancid city streets to country fields
Feel my pain through neurons connected to neon lights
Flashing in the distance for morons to see
Be patient I say to myself on this less than peaceful journey
Through thick and thin I quickly spin around
In a maze with no Frankie Beverly
Trying to fend for self no less
No more traveling light I carry the weight of this new world order on my shoulders
Too much sometimes to bear I bear witness of things to come
So I hum a tune, then proceed to beatbox…

Back to reality…oops there goes gravity…pulling me down
Like we accused The Man of doing for eons
But I’m my own man so I plan to rearrange the order of this new world
To include me as an example
Of what it is to struggle yet survive
I ask Gloria Gaynor what it takes and she speaks to me under the virtual disco ball
In this hip hop generation I call attention
Mention that life has its ups and downs
So when I fall, and I will
Get back up and trek until I reach the stars

From the dust I rose,
To the back of the bus I go
I throw similes at the sun and watch metaphors
touch the moon,
As a people march onward to extinction, young men
gone too soon
Girls gone wild raising illegitimate after
illegitimate child,
Destined for an illiterate existence while waiting
for a trial
Tribulations abound as I resound with a frown,
Watching the blood of a diaspora dripping on the
ground
From fresh wounds as well as antiquated injuries,
Waiting on a mule and 40 acres for centuries
The time is now before the time has passed,
Or we as a people will surely not last
I ask each and every one,
Man, woman, daughter, son
Do you value your birth or think of your demise,
A letter to the better and words to the wise
Rise like the tides in the bay chesapeake,
Think before you move, surmise before you speak
Reach for the stars instead of weapons of mass
destruction,
We've been placed on this global expanse with
simple instructions
Yet we choose the path of the unrighteous,
Ready...aim...the fire might just
Eternally burn flames that won't be extinguished,
Your right to a peace is what you relinguish
And a piece of your rights will be gone forever,
Unless we end the genocide and stand together

Whispers quiet in the night
With lights flickering
Fights, bickering
Kicking in the door to hearts that stopped
Beating to similar drummers
Endless summers I wonder about
Droughts of the amorous type
A dried up well with no end in sight
No mends for this plight
Bleeding from wounds inflicted on the afflicted
Affected by one who is infected
With a lack of love
An abundance of malice
Wishing for a palace but residing in an internal
shack
Help to open my eyes
Alert my ears
Awaken my heart
Hear my words
Before my voice fades into the sunset over
troubled waters

I know Him, yet I don't
I love Him, but sometimes I question
What my purpose is
Is it to glorify the Most High?
Is it to be the best man I can be?
Is it to attain heights never before imagined?
I think it is all this and much more
In Him I am rich, but always claim to be poor
Through His Son I can walk through heavenly doors
Through the sun I can talk so much more
About all the powerful things in store
My heart and soul is what I pour
Out through the Holy Ghost
That captures me in a rapture
Bringing tears of joy and laughter
So I have to praise and raise
His name on high
And through mysterious ways I try

© 2004 by Chris White
All Rights Reserved