Originally posted September 2018
Hardship was the inheritance of my people. I come from a clan of warriors, where struggle and tribe is all that I know. With primitive weapons I fight to protect and provide for my people. . .Flash. .. In shackles, chained to my brothers, I cross the big waters, leaving the only home that I knew. Sickness, thick as the blood in my veins clogs my nose and mouth. Death follows me across these frenzied waters… Flash… I sit in the shade listening to this “King” preach of peace and equality. These words are as foreign to me as I am to this land. My brothers and sisters march once again. Fighting with words and songs instead of spears and shields. Change is in the air… Flash… These “projects” were given to me and my people, we are free at last, yet we know not what to do with this freedom. We smoke and drink away the poor conditions of our homes… Flash… Our projects are now ghettoes, our streets are war zones, and the oppositions are our own kind. Madness. We band together to strengthen our prostitutions, to maintain the money from the drugs and prostitution of our women… Flash… We are killing each other. I am tired, there are no true warriors left, and they have become niggas, gangstas, pimps and players. Fighting with guns, killing for fashion with no honor… Flash… I’m chained again with my brothers but we do not move across waters. We are isolated in state institutions called prisons. A new sickness I taste on my tongue; one of defeat, hopelessness and self hatred. Death has caught up to us all. We rot in this motionless boat, going nowhere, learning nothing. There aren’t any more “Kings” preaching peace and equality. They are all too busy buying the latest Jordan’s and the biggest rims that they can’t actually afford. Or they sit at steel tables writing music about their plights. Flash… Flash… Flash… I’m still here… with a single-minded intensity. I take a step forward… Flash… That one step has changed everything that I’ve been. I am no longer the man a step behind me. Yet, I am not the man that I see before me either… Flash… Flash… Another step, I look back from where I came. I look to where I stand. There is no contentment, no joy in the progress I’ve made. There is so much more for me to accomplish before I arrive where I deserve to be, at the head of my clan, helping to awaken warriors and kings of my nation. To give them conscious awareness of who they truly are meant to be… Flash… Only they can see for themselves where they deserve to be in life. Only they can take the step into their destinies. Then I will embrace joy and contentment and show the future generations how to… Flash… Flash… Flash.