I am an inner city poet
Black heterosexual male 30 something
Hip hop rhythm in my speech
T-shirt reflecting my left wing beliefs
African beads baggy jeans and black Timberland kicks
Nappy twisted roots peeking from underneath a camouflage bandana
Wrist wrapped in a red black and green wristband
Answering to an assumed nom de plume
You know what I’ve come here to do
yes, you have seen my kind before
I am an irrational proponent of black liberation here to irritate you
I blow things way out of proportion
I complain too much
I show no consideration for the pain of others
Nor do I display commiseration for their struggles
I am a misogynistic
Homophobic
Philistine
A heathen
In need of a salvation that only your righteous chastisement
Can provide me
I have a spontaneously combustible temper
A predisposition towards inexplicable indignation
And an insane tendency to literarily displace aggression
After all
You’ve never owned any slaves
And anyone that would go out of their way to make one or two black friends
can’t possibly be racist, now can they?
You know me
I’m a self righteous hypocrite
Pro black and no reality
Ex gang banger turned activist turned rapper and or slam poet but you
You see straight through that charade don’t you
You know I’m not an artist
I’m a charlatan talking garbled nonsense calling it consciousness my thoughts are garbage
Love Jones
Mixed with public enemy
Just another black-crab-in-the-bucket-wannabe
Another weed inebriated
Power to the people
Rerun rabble rouser rapping revolutionary rhetoric as the crickets play along
I am the ace of spades race card player
Raising my right fist in praise of a nebulous black liberation agenda
you know me I’m just another would be riot inciter
I mix conspiracy theories
with meandering listings of so-called political prisoners
while attempting to convince you that its art
I am an ignorant belligerent lost cause
A marginally literate imposter
Crip walking on your conscience
And transgressing against your colorblind ideals
I am so passé
I still speak of white privilege
As if it exists
I am a card carrying reverse racist pig
Dr. Martin Luther King would disagree with me
because apparently I hate white people
I am so redundant
I really should expand my horizons after all
The whole world can’t be black
And all of that talk about the past
can only make the race problem come back
I am so damn divisive
And as soon as I walked into this venue
you knew that I came here to rain down licentious contrivances from stage
Victimizing my listeners via tirades filled with
inane inflamed and misaimed black outrage
you may as well ignore me
cause you’ve heard it all before right
I am biased one dimensional and closed minded
and you damn well know it
so never mind me
I guess poetry really isn’t my thing
Maybe I’ll be enlightened if I just keep my thoughts to myself
and listen to you
my subconscious is a real pig sty
and I don’t remember extending an invitation
but since you’re already here- come on in
just go ahead and make yourself at home
please
tell me how we’re all the same again
show me how to make myself expression less intimidating
I am begging you
help me make my aimless raving relate-able to the mainstream way of thinking
because you’ve already made it painfully apparent
that I’m devastatingly incapable
of expressing my own position
without my skin and gender rendering me victim of a prejudicial stigma
or
having plight disavowed outright
by so called open minded open mic attendees
when I bleed
its seen as weakness when I scream
and when I speak of freedom
its greeted with derision
from the very individuals that claim to be proponents
of unfettered self expression
but my life will not be circumscribed according to their biases
I am so much more than black heterosexual and male
I’m music
I’m grief
I’m love
I’m loss
I’m father
I’m bitter
I’m brother
I’m gangsta
I’m son
I’m faithful
I’m joyful
I’m wisdom
I’m infinite
I’m complex
I’m a survivor I’m a survivor I’m a survivor I’m a survivor
I’m a living breathing human being offering you a glimpse into my spirit
and I am still struggling to be and speak freely