tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8403523182045327212024-02-07T05:34:32.032-08:00400 Years In Babylontai amriTai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-36469312243642814932020-07-18T05:37:00.002-07:002020-07-18T05:37:19.579-07:005 Stages of Shango for Mercedes Holford<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4JPtqbB04aaWdb_STieMsBieCWjqVT1ztG7pr3WSblpXaq2zkg5NltR6dMljLIgJ3VT_rHIK_E6ndYFbwFpMGqs8Ob4GAEw5BGPneCIzsqokYXCpfObDKL9dd-Wh5KRI0hUYIPI5ffQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-07-18+at+6.58.08+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="703" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP4JPtqbB04aaWdb_STieMsBieCWjqVT1ztG7pr3WSblpXaq2zkg5NltR6dMljLIgJ3VT_rHIK_E6ndYFbwFpMGqs8Ob4GAEw5BGPneCIzsqokYXCpfObDKL9dd-Wh5KRI0hUYIPI5ffQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-07-18+at+6.58.08+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">i</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">behind her smile</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> is a rage</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">hand her my axe</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> as we ride</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">adorn her neck</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> with the red and white bead</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> whisper the wisdom</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">once more in her ear</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> she is my cedar</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> planted in kansas</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> the white egg shell</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> smudged and reborn</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> in every heart that knew her</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> the consort</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">of Black Valhalla</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">my warrior child</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">forever</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">ii</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">and somewhere</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> beneath that rona tragedy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> is mother and daughter</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">no killer found</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> who stalks her memory</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">without knowing</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> Shango</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">kabiesile!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">lifted seat</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> lifts axe to you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">foul and cruel</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> lava burn your eyes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> carved grooves in face</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">your judgment</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">breathless gasps</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> child smiles tattooed inside your eyelids</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">the city</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">topeka</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">that fails all you touch</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> that takes all you nurtured</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">and renders it dust</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">a balloon in the sky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> that flies raven</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">forevermore</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">til it falls like acid</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">like justice</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> on heads unwashed</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">uncleaned of wicked</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> not-snitched</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">we’ll find you</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> warrior sister slayer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Shango have mercy!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">iii</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">restored mercedes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">to her rightful throne</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> fixed her crown</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> and makeup</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> repainted her smile</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">she no longer dies</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">she is again who she was</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> laughing in hallways</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> dodging homework</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> the jump up to goat’d beats</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Black girl magic says </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> she’ll live forever</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">if her sister mirrors are made whole</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">iv</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">the nothingness of tomorrow</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> of the Black girl in constant suspension</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> the SRO who cuffs her soul</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> too powerful to be detained</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">so </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> we lost</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> for all our fighting</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> and the guns always win</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> our cash crop</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> must flow i guess</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">for american greatness</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">on ventilators</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> and a balloon is all we have to remember</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">forever</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">v</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">but if she has to go</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> she should know</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> that smile</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">was all i wanted</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> that now we know</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> just how hard the heart can rip</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> just how easily life can slip</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> just what we saw</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> hiding behind that smile</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">and i’ll see you</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> in the lightning and thunder</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> riding with Shango forever</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Mercedes</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 323px; overflow: hidden; width: 275px;"><img height="323" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Z6I9NdL7S6otJ5ZvT7kHL0VwVmjcNKqi5vevk6Q9MapGjLQz0RJzLzI4CHkEZuLYfRIfJNcJ-Gdxj92dto3dAztg_3cdraIKp0O5knLIlXS0bcljLXDY_3IMffMe6SDHfUr1u_KJ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="275" /></span></span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-65964485203609442552020-05-27T12:45:00.001-07:002020-05-27T12:45:49.208-07:00Things I Can't Tell My Daughter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhumTx791jg_O1Bk0i47S7-7At3TRb5Q9LSzSPz_7SSmYghf0On8slbipyv62iT0Tlb6KEt_XexzJhg6BsJfN8jn-0kgaTc31vyj3vPYn_BBwX2EkwybE4j92ENQRUQI2M5XCdCWKseDw/s1600/georgefloyd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="463" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhumTx791jg_O1Bk0i47S7-7At3TRb5Q9LSzSPz_7SSmYghf0On8slbipyv62iT0Tlb6KEt_XexzJhg6BsJfN8jn-0kgaTc31vyj3vPYn_BBwX2EkwybE4j92ENQRUQI2M5XCdCWKseDw/s320/georgefloyd.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When I was Black</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I had a tear</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">That swept</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Beneath the skirt</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Of the ocean</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It lays in rest</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">With the souls of Black folkx</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Who knew</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What survival might cost</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-af170c7a-7fff-ddfa-f915-1c0cbf40ed6b" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When Breonna Taylor slept</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In dreams of a family</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In arms of a lover</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In shelter</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In alarm</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Woke</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To bullet pounding</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Info terror propaganda</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Whistle blower PD parties</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Black woman lost to the whims</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Of a thirsty media demon</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Fed with likes and sad faces</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And a people too tired and hungry to stand up</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When Black men search for birds</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Their phones should be fully charged and live camera capable</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">They should always beware of unknown white women</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">With god complexes</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And should never attempt to correct them in any way</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Lest they end up like Christian Cooper</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Lest they want the noose</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When we don’t mourn</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A cop kneels firmly on our neck</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And a no-knock</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carries us down the river</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To ol’ massuh’s house</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Where the sun don’t shine</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And the bees don’t buzz</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And ain’t no way to know</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What it means to be Black</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-42686197023851048092020-05-06T12:05:00.001-07:002020-05-06T12:05:41.959-07:00Ahmaud Arbery<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 313px; overflow: hidden; width: 579px;"><img height="313" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/LOhqHX2Zn_6yDF0ZFyNhqdFFrukBPIpPWfWwDnfS_2Qf2nnk6YzaJfdl_A3ki7BZslOSj8iTkhoKlEar6lMlqioiVikU9Zjql71qanJROcWZO_m0ACgPVz3E4SKHm16G7y1EQ990" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="579" /></span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3a558b3f-7fff-cb02-de69-6a6df792a4be" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If I were lynched in the streets</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">My children would avenge me</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The moon with her sling </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The star with her bone</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And my wife </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">River</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">With a cauldron</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What I mean is</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Hands off the black godhood</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Because you see</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">We had trapped a white man</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Between two cars</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And shot him down</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No guns fired</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I’d be in a black site jail</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Until the klu klux klan</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Had their grand jury</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Instead I put my head</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Between two lips</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And wait for corona</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To take my six times more likely black self</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To sankofa</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Sankofa, a Black person’s Valhalla</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And if you don’t believe me</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Believe that for running</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You can lynch a Black man</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But we won’t stop running</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when cops say</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Drop your skin or we’ll shoot</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when doctors claim we don’t feel pain</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when billboards say we don’t father the children we raised</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when jobs burn the names off our applications</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when crack blocks are our stimulus package</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when American flags stretch our necks to pledging</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not when our children are sold, our mother’s confiscated and our backs stripped for a name</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ahmaud Aubrey</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Say his name</span></div>
<br />Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-27657593172169275032020-04-10T11:25:00.001-07:002020-04-10T11:25:27.620-07:00Stations Underground: The Greatest Friday<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Tai Amri Spann-Ryan</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-e50209e0-7fff-75d3-347b-d49c9e36778c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 348px; overflow: hidden; width: 393px;"><img height="348" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/IGRSRPsEMS7-LvhsplRy3Dz3wUHEXJcCD6CGe9JEtuuEnGexp9ufq1sW-OkIEqYYwnc9tz6gswDzEn1PyO_suZmqoezEbedjWfMkdrUe8tvyf2pmwxB3wzHNU_slECFR3wg3B9Yo" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="393" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Yo your laws</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Have passed us over</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You call us brothers and sisters</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But our ancestors were called a scourge</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Disinherited</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Dispossessed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Wretched</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Betrayed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You fell asleep on our needs</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Now the reaper comes</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But here</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Hear my guilt</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There was no way to freedom</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So we built stations</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Seven in number</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Live from the underground</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Straight from the sewers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Live from the underground</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Straight from the sewers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Live from the underground</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Straight from the sewers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Live</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 284px; overflow: hidden; width: 580px;"><img height="284" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/QKH4HRgNoqB7Fa2rT4C6aGozlDcBrxg_hFE6p9lAqrRUsTbUoCk4fKWFgA70EAchnRicBshJI5m_bS5KKrMOSYNWta7DmAlww8TuSEqGaVX5rm0g5IkHlJD90YxPHguuN86UP1vz" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="580" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">See my street clothes</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Meth mouthed</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Track marked</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Youth excommunicated</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Fire and brimstoned through the system</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Pastor’s kid</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Abomination</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Found family</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In non blood</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To stay alive and thrive</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 341px; overflow: hidden; width: 567px;"><img height="341" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/WsFEgqqSvSyd7Wak4DktViGnrGjzzxNx4lVNM3rTJgCd-Qfw1XQ1vzVAcVK0o0n0oMrH2r8Vrb3x-5pYBGPn3Dp80pklKu8xE1vrm59WE0WI2G-upCfVMPEMmYoHl5lBzsZ5w2O0" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="567" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You was my ally</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Marched left and right</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">By my side</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But when ICE came knocking</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You didn’t know my name</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 381px; overflow: hidden; width: 476px;"><img height="381" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/70CJ-INfZFlulItJRi6peoqvBJYzSLH_r8-wr5rFPb9nOO0VYwefA_f4ySjExKAW7BSA8MFpp8f0DQuO_TroLcAvojVPNRWJCzlq2bTLkvX3sVyTkgTeVIo68oBgSQ37NvWvC7Xa" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="476" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 3</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If I were to say</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There was a priest</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Who sells clean souls for a profit</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And preys on the young</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And a politician</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Crying, “Pro-Life!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">For lobbyist payouts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Who’s to say</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I wouldn’t get the electric chair</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">While private prisons get Swiss accounts?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 293px; overflow: hidden; width: 472px;"><img height="293" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d-I4f96_2AKyV2cYccHeySnQ07oZeRD83XKDSht90GaBIo1dgGYX2viEPmB9I46_9SUBbb7T1uiBrbpmjxAe_iMolzaEHVdZZ_07NZno9Qn2v9NFFDbCMTwg1bH3RpMJwG5tkC68" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="472" /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 4</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I’m purpled</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Like a stranglehold</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The beating gotten when I don’t follow massuh’s edicts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The beating when I do</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Black girl</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">8 times more likely suspended than her White counterpart</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Wet’suwet’en</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Jailed in pipeline legislation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carlos Gregario Hernandez Vasquez</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Collapsing in captivity</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Queen Candy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In a hotel room</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 290px; overflow: hidden; width: 486px;"><img height="290" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/BVJJZ2skzNOSpeqejwiocfUiruklvCVztS8Y_xjqrQj_ts2CH7YnP5cLHzYrejEFDFbTrOR7ywQDKn_cgwkYHXAibWppNsQMpGtgzZETuSdkCmSzmmjIBG3y4vLIUwzIn8RIv70j" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="486" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 5</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carried Guadalupe</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Tattooed on my back</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carried a cradle over the border</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Carried a coffin back</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A slave sent</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To pick my strawberries</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No soap</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Just bags to carry</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No amount of oxy</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Can erase the memory of a child</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Separated</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I carry the loss</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Of 9th great grandparents</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Removed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To a southern slaughter</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 329px; overflow: hidden; width: 597px;"><img height="329" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/2sXN7n5uqeZGpO8lTCBMgydeqtBiq7ccmnOSCrfnOuhnufH6IZIQwEiesEv3gl9_UApknjNZx3qKgzmQKTTTUnM5nGqbJ-y8O8yBDjGhdqHPV3ivJMs2dgALCy3CocBAbtQ0dSjJ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="597" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 6</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In Juarez</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There is a femicide</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When we think of our own oppression</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In St. Louis</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">All COVID-19 deaths</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Were Black</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But the news</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Won’t show</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What’s through the torn veil</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 332px; overflow: hidden; width: 330px;"><img height="332" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/U2KYAnCEen3u9wXr3Az3E6UfXSVT7fw9G_MbVodnerlobYgJtgrN2fZ36WI1PXCr03_r2R4bdwBPw6__0qsVdtj4XtwgX39zbDGVc80rW4ykK7BL6ww0hM1kcrvhk0P70j1oDwwU" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="330" /></span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Station 7</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Women</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">As usual</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Are the ones who see the truth first</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">That there’s nothing inside</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The promises are hollow</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Dream’s infected</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Death’s a cycle to life</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">That when they buried us</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">They didn’t know we were seeds</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-39997990710662372012020-04-07T15:42:00.001-07:002020-04-07T15:44:54.911-07:00Dark Prophet Poetry Challenge Day 6: holy week or The Beggar Woman<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsECqfBJIJdlAGOeuJtwfyd9dD8o8T2e1HOESinn7qyvLvFVPMMEU0J2qIxVn8Z1WwCYKy9TAHYV0bM-jceBW6-EY8kkWPUPjoVL4EOEzjROX4HFnx3w03TFfSl36dbrrnGlIaAtltoYk/s1600/syrophonecianwoman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="620" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsECqfBJIJdlAGOeuJtwfyd9dD8o8T2e1HOESinn7qyvLvFVPMMEU0J2qIxVn8Z1WwCYKy9TAHYV0bM-jceBW6-EY8kkWPUPjoVL4EOEzjROX4HFnx3w03TFfSl36dbrrnGlIaAtltoYk/s320/syrophonecianwoman.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">On Tuesday, April 7th, I was riding my bike under a bridge when a spray painted message caught my eye, and inspired a poem. The words said:</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d5a70be3-7fff-5947-a7d3-3fb24b4747d4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gotta get to it</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Before it takes over</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In the book of mark</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Can’t tell Jesus nothin’</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Unless your a beggar Woman</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Waiting for your crumbs</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Slapping the patriarchy</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Back into reality</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And questioning an overbearing god</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">On his people skills</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">For the win</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Even in this college town</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There are Tent cities</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And beggar women</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Waiting to slap you back into reality</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-44008442783054709552020-04-04T13:37:00.001-07:002020-04-04T13:37:36.068-07:00Dark Prophet Poetry Challenge Day 5: Yemaya and Oshun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkIJzNY1cmpp82wDN2HDGOnPkPjOr37nwNhm9E0YQEESfnr15V20FsnTqeolup5yfyThKomYfjin3hTSJCfnYdOua3n-6bh8tVXkAYyQ7_tB5fsb-JxubKg8TGLW3fL9tOq7DYhnefO8/s1600/yemayayochun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="371" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDkIJzNY1cmpp82wDN2HDGOnPkPjOr37nwNhm9E0YQEESfnr15V20FsnTqeolup5yfyThKomYfjin3hTSJCfnYdOua3n-6bh8tVXkAYyQ7_tB5fsb-JxubKg8TGLW3fL9tOq7DYhnefO8/s320/yemayayochun.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Space</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The ocean is mother</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">These are the ways of dark caves in the sea</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Black king Olokun</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Your daughter is life</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A blue maraca</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Over waves</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Omio yeye</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ebbo Fi Eboada</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Yemoja please speak:</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-b38b2732-7fff-1de5-e841-ecab09e17040" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">From time immemorial</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">My sister Oshun</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Kisses salt in sweet water</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Her mirror shows beauty</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Her hips sensuality</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Her lips sooth the demons</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And her knife slices too</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If I call her here lightly</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Your honey will form</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">But first</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The salt dies on the leaf</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Snails say that humanity runs short</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The source in the wells</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Needs tapping</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The root needs water for survival</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You heard</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Your judgment day</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Is to resurrect grandmother wisdom</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And throw way the patriarchs of greed</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Plunge hands in soil</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Drink Springs unplasticed</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Breathe air for transmutation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Sharpen mind like bullets</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Remember for nine months</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You swam in MY oceans</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So now when you feel it</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Call out my name</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Oshun</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">She has suffered</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">She knows we all we got</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">She broke your waters so you could be baptized in air</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Her Queendom is of </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The honey cultivated</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When she gave all she had</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So that humans</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Who have forgotten the labor</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Of growing their food</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Might not starve</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So that separation</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Between the natural</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And the human</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Would reverse</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And that humans might see</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There is no shelter</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">From what we are</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The disease</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And the cure</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ashe</span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-89038002515336070162020-04-01T18:58:00.001-07:002020-04-01T18:58:19.974-07:00Dark Prophet Poetry Challenge Day 4: Behind the Door<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEncY0ix3xChaOnZde5foJAGvNwApSVn1mrcm2ISi6hutL8xop8iVgiBPCmSKLIZpgG5khnMCEYUE7Ss4dSAGPh1P40WCm-dedKQxbRrr2R2j4T9B_VVBGVJlCzAuN-IMqUs3oVFYezhk/s1600/childelegba.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEncY0ix3xChaOnZde5foJAGvNwApSVn1mrcm2ISi6hutL8xop8iVgiBPCmSKLIZpgG5khnMCEYUE7Ss4dSAGPh1P40WCm-dedKQxbRrr2R2j4T9B_VVBGVJlCzAuN-IMqUs3oVFYezhk/s320/childelegba.png" width="239" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">i</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Went down to the crossroads</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">With banjo in hand</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Told my old lady</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I’m going to see the man</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Dressed in black and red</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Cigar dangling in his mouth</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A fist full of rum</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Stank of that dirty, dirty south</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-cc9804a1-7fff-2364-2770-6176dc4c8484" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I’ll call him by his true name</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Elegbara of the path</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If he accepts my chicken</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Well now you do the math</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Turning in a spiral</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Kisses on the neck</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Shouts to the heavens</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">He slips me a blank check</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Cause I’m a holy roller</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Got the mojo in my pouch</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Yes I’m a holy roller</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not trying to be no slouch</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Oh I’m a holy roller</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Mojo in my pouch</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I’m a holy roller</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not trying to be a slouch</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">ii</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Now that the way is open</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Broken bones</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Everywhere</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A death rattle</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A baby chokes</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">An ICE agent turns away</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A homeless family</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Locked in cordoned white tape</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Elegba in rags</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Elegba in the soft skin of a babe</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Elegba collapsed in ventilators</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Elegba</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In our sickness of greed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Warrior behind the door</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">When the streets of Yorubaland</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Go silent</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And South America bleeds capital</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Can you take this offering</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And tell our ancestors</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">We’re sorry</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">We didn’t mean to squander it all</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And if we pour out a libation</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Can you tell us the way home again?</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">ashe</span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-27170240689968674312020-03-31T00:48:00.001-07:002020-03-31T00:48:54.782-07:00March 31st, 2020 I’m (a) 40 (oz of fear) (after nichola torbett after bayo akomolafe)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguW3_unTsY22c-5-c0yhAkvrNymuhQL5UA-vfQHQjknCKj5UQKWqrNu83DMEcotBWMJnCiMEbSGw0r-1ec9HhRoGs1zAvfJpPe_8iprAgqDtK8EChDDHSYjMV5ZZDXIhNsEBc68ik2Pm8/s1600/oyaoz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguW3_unTsY22c-5-c0yhAkvrNymuhQL5UA-vfQHQjknCKj5UQKWqrNu83DMEcotBWMJnCiMEbSGw0r-1ec9HhRoGs1zAvfJpPe_8iprAgqDtK8EChDDHSYjMV5ZZDXIhNsEBc68ik2Pm8/s320/oyaoz.png" width="243" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In Kansas</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The storms</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Are watched from porches</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">With pride</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Potential projectiles</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Stabilized</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Grasslands watered</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In case of lightning strike</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The belly of the beast</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Has absolute center</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In a portal to oz</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">So</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">On my porch i sit</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">To stare </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Death in the pouch</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">A crumbling decay</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">That has festered far below the surface</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Where bottom feeders dwell</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Where the spirit of Olokum</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Communes with drowned african ancestry</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Crippled with legions, Babalu Aye’s possessions</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Are crushed in a cop owned dump trunk</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And even the wealthy</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Are bowed beneath the hand of pestilence</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ain’t gone be no more crumpets and tea</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No more flights of fancy</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No more self-help motivational speeches</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">This is the time of the storm</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Let that sink you</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Let the old you die</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">And be young again</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b04bbf58-7fff-0714-b79d-06f1804b5ec6"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">ashe</span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-90853722395957461032020-03-29T10:03:00.002-07:002020-03-29T10:15:04.079-07:00Dark Prophet Poetry Challenge Day 2: Oya<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsidFcZhKGuArnS-yvo-HiawjOIWxpHuDxjNXKGdhQGDWA4w40AsIKNT33qQ8XRFP6f0o3O_n91FzirwNyQrhk6gNuZ913pMfyBy7OkEdiNqRWTMWs70xBpLcnPFKGl7Rh0M_obxvXcPI/s1600/oya.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="482" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsidFcZhKGuArnS-yvo-HiawjOIWxpHuDxjNXKGdhQGDWA4w40AsIKNT33qQ8XRFP6f0o3O_n91FzirwNyQrhk6gNuZ913pMfyBy7OkEdiNqRWTMWs70xBpLcnPFKGl7Rh0M_obxvXcPI/s320/oya.png" width="253" /></a></div>
now the goddess game begins<br />
take me oya<br />
mistress of darkness<br />
queen of the 9 rainbow ancestors<br />
rattled seed pods<br />
<br />
i know your sword drips with blood<br />
i know your eyes fill with death<br />
but if you could<br />
dear mother<br />
see us through this growing cemetery<br />
horsewhip paths through corpses<br />
purple eggplant<br />
shines the black<br />
feet turn in ashes<br />
wind storms the gates<br />
skeleton army to the fray<br />
heart to earth<br />
ear to spirit<br />
words to youth<br />
you will survive<br />
even if we don't<br />
asheTai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-75309338044080373032020-03-29T09:31:00.003-07:002020-03-29T09:31:46.511-07:00Dark Prophet Poetry Challenge Day 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDPLsJJAn9fmGSnKopcR_PW1dfOII9881hRnCuh6XzCzmKjrfUZwQzKg67A-EeTkKYLfuVCq4dyJ5qNuc-_zNG0hDMfMFjLTVNUcmZBHjUD62JRrHipStrHeB4keuMFQuLn_gKahSmL4/s1600/sanlazarobabaluaye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDPLsJJAn9fmGSnKopcR_PW1dfOII9881hRnCuh6XzCzmKjrfUZwQzKg67A-EeTkKYLfuVCq4dyJ5qNuc-_zNG0hDMfMFjLTVNUcmZBHjUD62JRrHipStrHeB4keuMFQuLn_gKahSmL4/s1600/sanlazarobabaluaye.jpg" /></a></div>
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to Babalu Aye</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
why don't you send that root<br />the one that remembers<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br />all of your grandmother's recipes<br />the rough hands of grandfather<br />and the names of plants and animals<br />we see you hunched<br />crutch in arm<br />pock marked lungs<br />struggling to stay dry<br />beneath dirty water bridges<br />and tent cities<br />and refugee camps<br />waiting for the apocalypse<br />to reveal your true nature<br />the stolen land<br />the burned bridges<br />the sad demons<br />just waiting for a touch<br />in their social isolation<br />waiting for a chance<br />to bake fresh bread<br />play dress up<br />build a garden<br />milk some goats<br />and have a brass band parade<br />but Babalu Aye<br />if you hear this call<br />root us in<br />tickle<br />open<br />roasted corn<br />fresh coconut<br />smoked fish<br />dry wine<br />an altar of stones<br />a field in woods<br />ashe</span></div>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-81775874915991546442019-09-20T18:44:00.000-07:002019-09-20T19:33:00.447-07:00Climate Change in the Age of the Resistance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOEbrXyvgF1xCkakC2fc3Lo92QWsH1UEQ_27Zdo7cTeGav49W71nDRmPHGcPFfzQ5uVbOYKXxkuLiUUq6AeqbRex8k6-MuHBlp0WSwEgWyF31OrSbaLngtv3UCSMXLAt6-MzNd-HX0BQ/s1600/childcrystal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOEbrXyvgF1xCkakC2fc3Lo92QWsH1UEQ_27Zdo7cTeGav49W71nDRmPHGcPFfzQ5uVbOYKXxkuLiUUq6AeqbRex8k6-MuHBlp0WSwEgWyF31OrSbaLngtv3UCSMXLAt6-MzNd-HX0BQ/s320/childcrystal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It should be no secret that I love The Dark Crystal, and have since I was a small child in the '80's. I've always found the journey to discover a path to heal what is broken, without destroying "evil," but by unifying the dark and the light within us. It's just art though, right? That's not real life.<br />
<br />
Today, I spoke at a Climate Strike Rally in the place where I dwell, Lawrence, Kansas. My favorite speech came from an elder, who reminded us to center the voices of the marginalized, and to be wary of any movement that doesn't. (I'm trying to convince them to publish the speech so everyone can hear it.) I spoke after and kind of had that feeling like, "What else is there to say?" Luckily the organizers needed me to keep it short, so I did, I reminded people to move not just out of frustration, not just out of fear, not just out of hatred for the current administration, but for the love of trees, for love of Black and Brown and poor bodies who will bear the brunt of this world that is hurting. I told them to remember, like my 3 year old daughter does, that the Earth is alive, who sees Gaia/Life in EVERYTHING.<br />
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Afterwards, I came home, and finished the last episode of the prequel to what I still believe to be the greatest movie ever written, <u>The Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance</u>. Without giving away too much, I at some point in that last episode, began to weep, hard. There was a darkening in their world, caused by the extraction of soul essence for the purpose of granting immortality to mortal beings. This darkening was coming up from polluted ground, threatening to destroy all beings of good will, until one of them, given a gift by a sacred tree, absorbed the darkening into her body. And I realized, oh my Gaia, I know who it is that is absorbing the darkening.<br />
<br />
You see, while I always want to move out of love, for my family, both blood and chosen, and for this planet, that I recognize to be a living, feeling being, I also see the darkening. While the Rainforests burn, there are Indigenous people in Brazil, dying while protecting them. While we drill in tar sands, there are Indigenous people in the US and Canada, dying trying to protect them. In THIS world, there is a Light Crystal, and a Dark Crystal. The Light Crystal is the one that reminds us to love and that when we love fiercely, radically, unconditionally, and revolutionarily, we can change any system or situation. The Dark Crystal is the one that reminds us that in the battle of good and evil, most, if not all of us, has some aspect of Evil within us.<br />
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As we watch the epic battles of good vs. evil: The Dark Crystal, Comic Book Movies, Lord of the Rings, The Bible, we like to root for the good guys to win (while holding appreciation for the bad guys' sense of style), but the reality is, in most cases, we are the bad guys. This is especially true when it comes to climate change. It's one thing to say you live in the belly of the beast, it's another when you realize that not only does the Empire in Star Wars have a really good fashion designer, you actually benefit from the facism. OUR coffee, OUR cell phone, OUR paper, OUR cheeseburgers, are all the reasons that right now, Indigenous people are being murdered by governments, Black people are drowning in the Bahamas, Indonesians are being washed away, and Honduran Climate Refugees are being detained indefinitely.<br />
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So to my elder, I agree that Lawrence was founded by anti-slavery activists. My father, the history teacher, also taught me another side, the Dark Crystal, to that story. Many of those abolitionists were against slavery while still not seeing Black people as fully human, and certainly without wanting to live in community with them. The record bears this truth that needs to be heard. Some wanted our freedom, but they didn't want to have to love us too. Is that what we want for our planet, the regulations of a freemaket place, to wait for some "powerful" people to agree with us, or a place to love? And is it that we want these things because it hurts and degrades us as people, or do we want these things because we want poor people, and disproportionally Black and Brown poor people, to stop dying? If your fight is not for them, then I must say, you can stop fighting. Climate Change won't really have to affect us very much, we are very safe in our bubble of a belly. Sure we get hit by the occasional tornado or hurricane, but we have the money to stem those few losses. Money, and, oh yes, all those poor Black and Brown Bodies who have the good fortune of absorbing all the darkening, all the bullets, all the burnings, on the disappeared peoples, all the detainees, and all the soul essence needed, to ensure we live good and long lives. From the Dark Crystal.Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-75414834061299025282019-07-04T12:47:00.002-07:002019-07-04T12:47:54.022-07:00Flag of Distress/What to a Migrant Child is July 4th?by Tai Amri Spann-Ryan<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuxTHRjO3goUTTptqHJBdIlsmoj_gYgc7xsS13eVeSHERlfm_ss_JB_tiloY6yiKmALRs73q7hsYmHnr8kF2zMhQbEAiwlxVwk64vN9qlJDB6yvm2LRtN07IMkW-uALXFfvK92JY7xMA/s1600/MigrantChild.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuxTHRjO3goUTTptqHJBdIlsmoj_gYgc7xsS13eVeSHERlfm_ss_JB_tiloY6yiKmALRs73q7hsYmHnr8kF2zMhQbEAiwlxVwk64vN9qlJDB6yvm2LRtN07IMkW-uALXFfvK92JY7xMA/s320/MigrantChild.png" width="320" height="213" data-original-width="941" data-original-height="626" /></a></div>Mother forgive us<br />
When we know exactly what we do<br />
Take your darker children<br />
And lock them in dungeons of greed<br />
Make mourners of their mothers<br />
Drown their fathers in rivers of freedom<br />
Force 10 year olds to raise babies<br />
And deny them methods to heal<br />
<br />
When you look at the trail that we’ve walked<br />
Awaken to the pain we have wrought<br />
The only logical solution<br />
Is to repair legacies of despair<br />
But there’s a crown that sits on oppression<br />
Opium dens for hatred to incubate<br />
Soldiers manufacturing consent<br />
And stars that blind with blockbusters<br />
<br />
So what to an imprisoned migrant child<br />
Is the 4th of July?<br />
It’s not the rocket’s red glare<br />
It’s the ripping of the sinews of the heart<br />
Torn from mama<br />
Not the flag of freedom<br />
But the chainlinked fence<br />
The toilet bowl drinking fountain<br />
Not the rainbowed produce aisle<br />
But the spoiled bologna<br />
Not a day to spend with loved ones<br />
But straw on a desert floor<br />
<br />
We don’t need another celebration<br />
We need the cold shock of sobriety <br />
Don’t need to watch another show<br />
Need to hear influenza’d cries for family<br />
Don’t need to read POTUS tweets<br />
Need to pay the sins of our forefathers<br />
Don’t need infighting<br />
Need solutions already<br />
<br />
And when we feel that our problems are “the worst”<br />
We need to remember that there’s a child<br />
Who followed a dream<br />
Where they saw their father drowned<br />
Where they can’t soothe their mother’s tears<br />
And where men with guns keep them whispering<br />
Mother forgive us<br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-84469836022556147802018-03-16T11:24:00.000-07:002018-03-16T13:20:12.078-07:00(R)evolution Come: Guns + Good Friday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hWfYvtiZP8qw-CazOtKJ36JfXvCplOdp7x1plU6OE9KzkYwxVYa-xqDpDunnIufuymX22w9ATd8dtAkYXI714SPWPL2QWWOl3g-4I1P2uUvrKxy1WcbtX_DDwFsh2NqYAn2V5KkQtA4/s1600/childrenprotesting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hWfYvtiZP8qw-CazOtKJ36JfXvCplOdp7x1plU6OE9KzkYwxVYa-xqDpDunnIufuymX22w9ATd8dtAkYXI714SPWPL2QWWOl3g-4I1P2uUvrKxy1WcbtX_DDwFsh2NqYAn2V5KkQtA4/s320/childrenprotesting.jpg" width="320" height="240" data-original-width="1200" data-original-height="900" /></a></div><br />
What is this world we’ve created for our youth? 7,000 dead to gun violence since 2012?! What is that? The weight that we are leaving for our youth is unbearable to bear witness to, but if we don’t… what kind of world will we have created? Have you ever really been present with the violence of youth? I’m not talking about debating violence in video games and television, I’m not talking about whether or not there should be parental advisory stickers on music or lamenting the fall of Western Society. I mean, have you ever heard what youth have to say about the violence they’ve witnessed and the violence they fear? And did you know that outside of Parkland, Florida and mass school shootings, youth have been trying to tell us that they are tired of the violence? If so, you know that to bear witness to such a thing changes you, and if not, what could be stopping you is fear of that change.<br />
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Recently, I had the opportunity to bear witness to that pain in a peace training I was facilitating. I was prepared to breach the topic when I posed the question to 15 youth between 12-22 years of age, “How has gun violence affected your life?” What I was not prepared for was hearing the violence and death that youth had witnessed. What I was not prepared for was hearing the fear that the youth live with, the threats they have had to endure because of their identities. “If I was a mass shooter, I’d shoot you first.” One youth was told. Guess why they didn’t tell a teacher? Because they have absolutely no faith in us as adults. Sit with that.<br />
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I’m only 37 years young, but when I was a kid, I didn’t sit around worrying about whether someone was going to come shoot up my school. Even though I was a Black boy growing up in a system that I knew targeted me, I wasn’t thinking about the police shooting me for playing with water guns. When I got older, I moved to Oakland, California, where I worked as a pastor. I heard from teenagers who wanted to stop their friends from being killed and from killing. So I joined a movement could Silence The Violence, where we held vigils for those who had died. Our Good Friday consisted of visiting street corners where murders had occurred, and recognizing the broken, tortured and state-sanctioned assassination of the living Christ. Seeing the discrepancy between the way the have lived, with their disdain for the poor, and the way the have-nots died, on street corners with teddy bears and heart-shaped balloons, was part of what pushed me to join the Occupy Oakland Movement. I’ll never forget the face of that sweet, quiet boy in my after school class when I told him about the 1% and how much they own, and I asked him how he felt, and he answered, “It makes me want to kill somebody.” What do you say to that? “No don’t feel?” That won’t save him.<br />
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When I moved to Kansas, I carried with me these stories from The O. So when my community started to protest for Black Lives Matter, I remembered the mother whose son, a senior in high school, had been shot by the police, his last words, “I didn’t do anything,” and I protested feeling the responsibility that sharing a burden requires. How do you not explode then, when you hear the critique, “Why don’t Black people protest Black on Black crime?” Do you know how many years Black people have been protesting Black on Black crime? Do you know why it’s not common knowledge? When we call out one another, no one listens, but when we call out the powers that be, people get offended.<br />
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And now all of these movements to stop the cycle of violence and poverty are intersecting in this rise of a youth movement. In fact, this movement had always been rising. I’ve been marching with young people, from Philly to Oakland, who has been trying to stop the violence in their community. Now the world is listening. Maybe it’s because of the light skin of the victims. But, to me, this is not a deterrent. Youth get to fight for their lives whatever their skin color. There are just a few things that I think are important to recognize:<br />
<br />
<b>1) Stay Woke to those who have lived in violence longer than you:</b> There are people who have lived with the fear of death by gun violence their entire lives. I have taught 4-year-olds who have watched their family members die. I have listened to the news without breath and heartbeat, waiting for their names to be dropped. We can’t forget those voices in this fight. http://www.snapjudgment.org/counted-oakland-story<br />
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<b>2) Denying the humanity of perpetrators is a path to losing your own humanity:</b> The solution to ending murder is not murdering, or even incarcerating, murderers. In fact, many of the “mass murderers” are actually suicidal, just like many of the youth who murder have lost hope that anything in the world will ever get better. In the fight to end gun violence, we can’t forget that our fight isn’t against people but against unjust systems. People who commit murders sometimes have family members who vehemently disagree with them, who did their best to raise them right, and who need to be listened to and learned from. Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters is just one example, there are many more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xfyN-yBZ7c&t=624s<br />
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<b>3) Resist Pressures for Division:</b> From the day we are born, there are multiple messages that attempt to divide us from people who look or live differently than us. Those messages increase when fighting for justice. The FBI, the CIA, the local police, have all been complicit in infiltrating movements throughout American history. What does this look like? In the Civil Rights era, it looked like lies, threats and the loss of jobs being directed at participants. In the Black Power Movement it looked like infiltrators being sent to spy and disrupt organization. In the Occupy Movement it looked like people planted in peaceful protests to start throwing rocks at police or breaking windows. In the Black Lives Matter Movement it looks like labeling leaders as terrorists. But the simplest way to disrupt is to spread rumors. Substantiating the simplest statement like, “I heard ________ doesn’t care about anybody that doesn’t look like them,” can be the seed of death. Even if it’s true, it can’t be what makes us stop working for justice. We can, and will, often disagree, but if we stop working together, it’s all done. The other path is to take every step we can towards solidarity. Just as people all over the world march with Parkland, even if they are kids from the hood, who are Black, who feel that their voices have been ignored, because they believe that if they march, the message can be amplified, and the result can benefit all people. So we can all march in solidarity with one another, to strengthen all messages, and benefit all people. You don’t have to be trans to march on Trans Day of Remembrance. You don’t have to be Palestinian or Jewish to march against apart-hate. You don’t have to be a woman to march to end violence against women. Targeted groups are marching for all people, so all people should march for them. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/helen_ubinas/parkway-center-city-high-mass-shootings-parkland-florida-marjory-stoneman-gun-violence-20180313.html<br />
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It is absolutely possible to make these shifts towards change. It’s already happening. The way we sustain it though is by staying woke to those who carry a wisdom, and unfortunately, tragedy is the wisdom that we need to learn from today. We can’t finish the fight, the point is to keep taking steps forward. That is what (R)evolution is, a shift towards our highest self, a beloved community. As one of my mentors, the woman who taught me the difference between a riot and a rebellion, Grace Lee Boggs would say, “in the middle of the catastrophe, in the middle of disaster, people-- particularly people who have already suffered-- see an opportunity to evolve to another stage.” May it be so. Ashe.<br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-15323290610046167712017-11-18T22:52:00.002-08:002017-11-18T22:55:02.967-08:00Red Bird<p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4GMNR9vWYFF6kwP-6rsruLgPWoeiHxCI4MAJllAXgGCBWomE9_rJswMKQNAmOodwwF4hTf_OQQSNH5i2yeOgr1XAvJ_hpDmNNaveuTH0OyN-QzxuyF1NWHBhZjlzchnwguc1_oVmAIA/" alt="">Red Bird
</p><p><br></p>
<p>Face to the Black sky</p>
<p>Of my mother</p>
<p>Red as the day</p>
<p>Red as the new sun</p>
<p>Red as the blood of my life</p>
<p>Poured out for the sins of this land</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Board me</p>
<p>In your white schools</p>
<p>For white gods</p>
<p>And white ways</p>
<p>No good for my braids</p>
<p>They sit raw on your floors</p>
<p>Then</p>
<p>Burned</p>
<p>Unfit for a trophy</p>
<p>The weight of guilt and shame</p>
<p>Creating a stench</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>The mission in Shawnee, Kansas</p>
<p>Was always extermination</p>
<p>By any means necessary</p>
<p>Our souls</p>
<p>For your land</p>
<p>Our boys and girls</p>
<p>For your dreamcatchers</p>
<p>Our buffalo</p>
<p>For your art</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>I’ll tell the story</p>
<p>My grandmother told me</p>
<p>Once I was the sun</p>
<p>But someone told me to kneel</p>
<p>Now I’m the watcher</p>
<p>As my people die</p>
<p>And I tell the tale</p>
<p>While you deny</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Zitkala-Sa</p>
<p>Standing on the rock</p>
<p>Quakers who fought in abolitionist circles</p>
<p>Stealing my soul</p>
<p>For their schools</p>
<p>To be cleansed of red earth</p>
<p>And made of plastics</p>
<p>For their cupboards</p>
<p>And beneath the beds of their children</p>
<p>Waiting the test of time</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Without our hearts</p>
<p>This game ends</p>
<p>Without our mother’s tongue</p>
<p>The earth will be forgotten</p>
<p>So we hold them somewhere</p>
<p>They cannot go</p>
<p>To use them</p>
<p>When to live in this world</p>
<p>Could be no more</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-90481346264052062742017-06-22T12:20:00.000-07:002017-06-22T12:20:09.128-07:00Juneteenth: Praise The Lorde, Audre Lordeby Tai Amri (Baby Pastor) Spann-Wilson<br />
<i>This message was given June 18th, 2017 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Lawrence, KS</i><br />
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Happy father’s day to the fathers, and to our fathers’ fathers, and their fathers’ fathers, and all the way back to Grandfather Sky. Past there to before there were fathers, because all was just ONE.<br />
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Today is supposed to be a day to celebrate the liberation of Black people from slavery, but I’m having trouble feeling celebratory, when the policeman who lynched Philando Castile on Facebook Live is exonerated, and the Castile family’s hearts are broken, again, for everyone to see. I understand that we all live in this Babylon of America, we all have a “cross” to bear, but the death of another Black body hits me differently, especially this Black body, because of how close it feels to my own identity. I, like Castile, am a Black man used to be looked upon with suspicion by authorities. I, like Castile, shed sweat and tears to sustain the lives of young people. I, like Castile, have a little girl in my life that I adore and want to nurture into womanhood. I cry for the lynched bodies of my Black brothers, but what about that little girl? There is no verdict in our courtrooms, that can undo what that little girl experienced, as she watched a father figure’s life be so brutally ripped from this world before her eyes. How about her Father’s Day?<br />
<br />
Part of this journey, being Black in America, is learning how to love and find reason to celebrate, while being surrounded with hate and oppression. Audre Lorde has reminded me, that the different ways that we experience, is a part of our power. As she writes, “In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.” So, praise the Lorde, Audre Lorde. This refrain, “praise the Lorde”, was revealed to me by Unitarian Universalist minister, Sofia Betancourt. Indeed, Audre Lorde is worthy to be praised. She taught us the power of naming ourselves, as she named herself, “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. So, let us re-member to name ourselves, as I now, name myself, “black, father, writer, sex-positive, youth worker, and roots worker.” Take a moment to name yourself, or at least to consider the idea. [Silence] Praise the Lorde, Audre Lorde. I want to share with you a song, because as the ancestors have been trying to remind us, in our songs, singing can be a portal to the other world, the world of possibility. You know the chorus of this one, but so often we forget the verse, One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright. One love, one heart. Give thanks and praise to the Lorde, and I will feel alright. Let’s get together and feel alright. Let’s get together, to fight this holy Armageddon. So when the man comes, there will be no, no doom. Have pity on those, whose chances grow thinner. There ain’t no hiding place from the Father of Creation.<br />
<br />
Audre Lorde, in our reading, shared with us the necessity for disengaging with the Master’s Tools. We come together in our difference, on Juneteenth. Juneteenth is the day that we acknowledge that Texas took more than two years to end chattle slavery, after the presidential signing and activation of the Emancipation Proclamation, calling for the freeing of all stolen Africans. In January, 1863, while some Black people were leaving the plantation in search of a promised land, others were still being tortured in the ravages of slave labor. Two years of torture, until we could get our children, our siblings, our parents, our grandparents, out from under “Master.” The jubilation that all must have felt.<br />
Some have called Juneteenth the African American July 4th, where Black people can celebrate the history of their independence from slavery. I’d like to imagine that when my ancestors found out America’s war with its own soul was over, they flipped the bird to the overseer, pulled out their banjos and fiddles, and started dancing in the crops. And after two years of partying, they heard that there were some Black people in Texas who were still in bondage because their slave masters hadn’t delivered the news that they were free, so they marched on over, kicked down the door of the big house, and held a bonfire house burning party, blasting Bob Marley’s “One Love” in the background.<br />
But the reality of Emancipation was very different. Just 20 years after the signing of the proclamation, Frederick Douglass, one of the #firstwoke, after having visited South Carolina and Georgia and seeing the continued wretched conditions of southern labor, called emancipation, “a Stupendous Fraud,”. While we might have been taught that a white man named Abraham Lincoln set the slaves free, we know that in actuality, the blood and the faith of our ancestors broke the chains of chattle slavery, only to find a world where slavery had been given different name, all the way to the present age, where its name is mass incarceration<br />
<br />
Allow me to get nerdy on you for a moment, but my mama raised me right by watching Star Trek the Next Generation with me, so I recognize the fight for freedom to be similar to the fight against what I think of as the most relevant enemy in all of Star Trek, the Borg. The Borg is a collective of cyborgs, who’s mission it is to enslave all of creation to its will by assimilating them into hive mind thinking. What is most relevant is that any plan of attack is immediately processed and fortified against. In our own history of liberation, I have seen this to be true. Chattle slavery’s form of free labor can be seen in the corruption of the prison industrial complex, human trafficking and free trade. So why do we still have slavery? Could it be because we tried to abolish it using the master’s tools?<br />
<br />
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t seek to change legal structures. If you look closely at the 13th Amendment, calling for the abolition of slavery, you will see that what it accomplished was the abolition of slavery, “except as a punishment for crime,” meaning, all that was needed was the creation of laws that make living while Black, living while poor and homeless, living while undocumented, a crime, thus perpetuating to this day the proliferation of free and cheap labor that American capitalism is built on. But there is something deeper that Audre Lorde, is trying to teach us with her message. The legal system is only one tool of the master, there is an even more powerful tool that the master has, it’s the tool of division. This tool, is the absolute opposite of intersectionality. In this modern era, we have been blessed to have so many who have followed in the footsteps of the Audre Lorde, exposing the divisive tools of “the master.” From Michelle Alexander, who detailed how the white poor were given racial privilege to separate their movements for justice from Black movements for justice; to Tanahesi Coates, who addressed “the people who [were made to] think they are white” as a way to create false solidarity and encourage the exploitation of people of color; to Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor, who, in her book, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, exclaims that the problem with America is no longer the color line, but colorblindness, which defines racism only in individualistic terms and ignores its institutionalization, made possible only with coded language that avoids any mention of race. Keeanga-Yahmatta explains how on one hand, it is no longer acceptable to speak of systems of oppression, like the war on drugs and poverty, in terms of locking up and taking away the safety nets of Black and Brown folkx. In reality, Black and Brown folkx are still the faces of both crime and poverty. This serves the purpose of making the entire world believe that crime and poverty are only the problems of Black and Brown folkx, because of some deficiency, rather than risking the truth behind the reality that Asian folkx, Native folkx, Latinx folkx, as well as people who have been made to believe they are White, all suffer at the hands of corporate exploitation. If the reality were shown, instead looking at each other with suspicion, we might do more together to fight this Holy Armageddon. The Borg hive mind is against all collaboration across our differing identities.<br />
<br />
I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but I am different. Or, like the book my one year old daughter has begun to memorize called Shades of Black that celebrates all the colors that Black people come in by repeating this one refrain, “I am Black, I am Unique.” I talk about Praise the Lorde, Audre Lorde and Star Trek’s, The Borg. My whole life people of all colors have told me that I’m not like other Black people they know, sometimes this is said in kindness, sometimes this is a criticism. You see, I come from a long line of nonviolent abolitionist, wagers of peace, pacifists, known as Quakers. Where I grew up on the East Coast, when I told people I was a Quaker pacifist, they’d say, “I’ll pass a fist over your jaw.” I stood silently. They moved on to the more reactionary.<br />
<br />
But here’s the thing, I also come from a long line of violent revolutionaries. As my brother, Mai Sankofa, writes in his rap “They Say”, my great grandfather murdered his slave master for his freedom. I acknowledge both the violent and nonviolent aspects of my lineage, just as we all have violent and nonviolent ancestors. I also acknowledge that the movement towards justice has always had violent and nonviolent aspects to it.<br />
In my work, I have been a nonviolent abolitionist, working to raise and nurture the next seven generations. Like Audre Lorde, I hear the unsaid from our children, shouting, “If you want us to change the world someday, we at least have to live long enough to grow up!” But even though my heart leans towards the youth, that doesn’t mean that I won’t work and stand with the social justice warriors of my own generation. That does not mean that I do not honor the wisdom and experiences of my elders. My activist training has taught me that the most effective means of social transformation is through nonviolence and the power to refuse to allow hatred into my heart. It has taught me that no one is irredeemable, that everyone can change and be awoken. But I recognize that I have had a privilege in my life to have that perspective, and if I hadn’t grown up with nonviolent activist parents, I might be more militant. So, I love and respect my militant folkx. What’s more, while I love and respect my ancestor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., what I want to know is, why isn’t there also a public day of recognition for John Brown, who also sacrificed for freedom, or Tiger Dowdell, Black Power activist shot down by police right here in Lawrence, KS, in 1970. My roots tell me that The Spirit is a powerful tool for liberation, and that the ancestors are always with us in our struggles. That doesn’t mean that I won’t embrace and support material thinking that questions and rejects religion and all spiritual reality. And most importantly, I am an abolitionist who believes that prisons are completely obsolete systems of corporate oppression. I believe that they cannot be reformed, and I also believe that locking up individuals, like police officers who murder the innocent, will not change institutional racism anymore than locking up drug dealers will change sanctioned poverty. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t march with those who call for prison sentences for crooked cops. Abolition of prisons means to me looking beyond the two solutions of, either we have prisons or we don’t, it means looking towards a third possibility, where instead of locking criminals in cages where their mental and physical well being is constantly deteriorating, we create systems that actually work to restore them back into society, and instead of those who have been violated being given the choices of locking their violators in cages or having them be murdered, we create systems in which the violated are actually led in a process where they can discover what they need to be restored. This is what is meant by restorative justice. I am unwavering in this belief in abolition, I will never support the building of or the sentencing to a prison, but I also believe this, if I were only to stand in solidarity with those who believed exactly as I do, I’d be standing alone. Master’s Tools. Praise the Lorde.<br />
<br />
I wish we were just fighting a Master, or even a group of Masters, but we, are fighting the Borg. It’s not a person, because if it was, we could assassinate them and be free. But the Borg will make more people. It’s also not a group of people. Because if it was, we’d just have to lock them up. But Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th showed us that the Borg made prisons a part of an industry that functions like a beast that grows more powerful the more you feed them. Even the abolition of prisons is not the answer. Because 13th also showed that if we abolish prisons, they’ll make our homes a prison, privatizing parole and probation, keeping the prison buildings free, by giving us digital gps shackles, so they will know when we leave our homes, and when we join together. No, the Borg is us, the hive mind, that says attack. There’s danger all around so attack. We’ll die if we don’t attack. Attack for survival. So you attack me. So I attack you. So you attack yourself. Because nothing we do is ever enough. Because we’re always messing up. Because we’re never woke enough. And don’t forget, to stay in your lane. My lane is Blackness, if I’m Blackest in the room, if not I defer to those who are Blacker. Your lane is the environment. Your lane is fighting homophobia. Your lane is sexism. Your lane is immigration. Your lane is poverty. Your lane is militancy. And no switching lanes, it’s not allowed, so that now I feel like we’re living in a Facebook algorithm, where everyone around us thinks pretty much like we do.<br />
<br />
But what if, we rejected the Master’s Tools and the Master’s Rules. What if, we learned that there is no ONE to blame, because we are all one, to love. Lawrence, Kansas, can you not see, we are shackled from one another, me from you? Can you not also see, that we hold one another’s keys, one from the other? Am I saying, can’t we all get along? No, I don’t want to get along. I want to get free. I want reparations. Reparations for our children, whose future is being stolen in our destruction of one another and of the planet. Reparations for our Black fathers, who have been stolen, again, and whose families mourn their loss, may we be restored. Reparations for Black folkx, whose ancestors were stolen, and who still suffer the marks of oppression, may we be restored. Reparations for Native Americans, who face genocide and stolen land, may they be restored. Reparations for women, subjugated, may you be restored. Reparations for immigrants whose countries have been given forced contracts and US led dictatorships, may you be restored. Reparations for Muslims who have been demonized and ostracized and forced to live in fear, may you be restored. Reparations for Jews whose names have been stolen in our addiction to oil, may you be restored. Reparations for people who have been forced to believe they are white, so they would have no motherland, and no solidarity with those of us who do, may you be restored. Reparations for the earth, who is no one’s property, but everyone’s responsibility, may you be restored.<br />
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This is the Juneteenth Jubilee of the Intersectional Movement. Get with that. Let go of the Master’s Tools and be restored. Praise the Lorde, Audre Lorde. <br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-90076779171402322032017-06-13T09:42:00.002-07:002017-06-13T09:42:47.138-07:00The Broken Heart of The Activist<i>A message given June 4th, 2017 to the Continuing Revolution Young Adult Friends Conference </i><br />
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by Tai Amri Spann-Wilson<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>The pain of life may teach us to understand life and, in our understanding of life, to love life. To love life truly is to be whole in all one’s parts; and to be whole in all one’s parts is to be free and unafraid.</i><br />
- “Pain Has a Ministry” Dr. Howard Thurman<br />
<br />
It is good to be back in Pendle Hill. Pendle Hill is a special place. A place where people of peace can gather and be rejuvenated. A place where there is only one rule, don’t touch someone else’s fresh bread.<br />
<br />
I write these words to you in the library, where I concluded my discernment and made the decision to attend seminary at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Many of us young interns that year followed a call towards full time commitment to serve in spirit and justice. This path has been a blessing and a burden, filled with joy and pain. I’d like to share some of that with you this morning.<br />
<br />
I have so many memories in this place. I can’t walk into Brinton House without thinking of the day I met Joanna Macy, the engaged Buddhist and spiritual activist who taught us to fully experience all the pain of the ending of the world through climate chaos, so that maybe, at most, it might spur us on to save our beautiful mother, the earth, but at least it would help us to fully love and care for her in her last days. Even though she was 50 years my senior, I still thought I’d never wash my face after she kissed my cheek. Throughout the campus, I can still hear the voice of Rev. Dorsey Blake, the successor of Dr. Howard Thurman, who founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, the first interfaith church in the U.S. out in San Francisco. I think of how his strong and quiet faith called me out to California, where I got to sit at the feet of a man who, when he prays, feels like he is speaking directly to each and everyone’s Inner Teacher. I see, sitting off into the corner, the spirit of Aljosie Aldrich Harding, wife of the late Dr. Vincent Harding. She is sharing the teachings that her and Dr. Harding learned in their struggles to make the goals of nonviolence real in the Civil Rights movement, their rootedness in their faith, and their answering the call to serve wherever asked. I saw her last at the YAFCON of 2014 here at Pendle Hill, but I met her first with her husband in Detroit, while I was studying at the feet of the great grandmother of the modern activist movement, the first generation Chinese American, Grace Lee Boggs. It was there that Dr. Harding fortified my resolve to always remember to bring song into the justice movement, and reminded us to never forget where we come from, as he asked all of us when first meeting us, “Where was grandmother born?” The spirituality with which he walked is forever interwoven with the intense clarity of Grace Lee Boggs. I cannot think of Aljosie or Dr. Harding, without thinking of Grace, who would often say to us, “the Chinese character for crisis is made up of the characters for danger and opportunity.” Those words are what I am reminded of in the crisis of today.<br />
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I wanted my partner Shannon, and my daughter Alanna Naledi, to experience these spirits that I describe. Before Alanna was born, I told Shannon that I believed with her strength of body and my strength of heart, we could co-create a Lauren. Lauren is a character created by Black, queer, science fiction writer, Octavia Butler, in her post apocalyptic book series, The Parable of the Sower. Lauren is a survivor with the perfect mixture of empathy and fortitude. She inspires those around her to constantly embrace change, for as she says, G-d is change. My mother had once told me that I remind her of Lauren, but there have been few times in my life when I’ve felt all that inspiring. In fact, when I speak the words of the crisis, it is mainly to this point that I am speaking.<br />
I’d like to say that my crisis was simply an external threat. Trump is president, the Klan rides again, congress is legislating genocide. If only there were something out there that we could destroy and be done with it. The truth is, at the moments when I begin to most fully embrace myself as an activist, I find myself engulfed not just by burning passion, but a burning of another kind. Let me stop being vague.<br />
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You see, there is a dis-ease here in America, that is in other places too, and I’ve got it, bad. I’ve always tried to believe that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice, but that belief gets harder daily. If that belief were only challenged by those who seem to be working against the very things that I am working towards, you know, those Quaker SPICES, peace, equality and the such, it might be understandable. But no, those beliefs have been challenged by the very people I call my sisters, my brothers, those I call my comrades, by the face I look at in the mirror. The world seems now to be becoming more divided than ever before. The macro looks like England vs. The European Union, the U.S. vs. the non-fascist countries, white nationalists vs. everyone else. This ugly, but the micro looks worse. The micro looks like our elders vs. our youth, those who say, let’s use strategy vs. those who say, get out the way then, me vs. a wildfire.<br />
<br />
I helped start the Black Lives Matter movement in Lawrence, Kansas. I never wanted to control it, all I wanted was to be a part of the (r)evolution that was coming. Little did I know the scars I’d be left with. I should have known first when the name that people wanted to go with was, Black Lives Matter-LFK, the LFK standing for Lawrence Fucking Kansas. At the time, I was a preschool teacher, so I thought to myself, uh oh, guess I can’t wear that shirt to school or even around town, less my message be completely negated by the questions around what LFK stands for. But I decided to roll with it. I spoke at the rallies, I attended the meetings, and the hours long Facebook chats, then WhatsApp chats, then signal chats, then, when all the chatting and ranting reached a fever pitch, I found all my words being stuffed down my throat, and I found that I literally could no longer swallow. I literally could no longer digest my food. It went on for weeks. I’d eat two bites of a bagel and find myself hiccupping, for seven hours. Hiccupping until a puked. I lost 30 pounds in two weeks. I said to myself, what’s wrong with me, I said to my doctor, what’s wrong with me, I said to my family, what’s wrong with me. Then I remembered something that my Quaker ancestors said to me. When the world says don’t just sit there do something, we say, don’t just do something, sit there. So, I sat there. I told them group I couldn’t keep it up, the vitriol, the constant action without forethought. And the group said to me, you’re an Uncle Tom then. And there it was. All my hate anger thrown back at me. And I just sat, and tried to heal.<br />
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I’d like to stand before you and give you hope, but the truth is, this has been one of the most hopeless years I’ve ever experienced. I’d like to say I’m still an activist, but I can’t, not like I used to say that I’m an activist. Can’t do activism like that anymore. And then I remembered something that I’d heard from Dr. Howard Thurman. G-d is with us in our pain, if we’re paying attention that is. And I think about the word, the name, the being G-d. G-d is not a term I heard used very much growing up Quaker. The Light I heard a lot. In pain is truthfully where the Light feels hardest for me to see. And then I thought of one more term that has been with me in lieu of G-d, my ancestors. My ancestors are with me in my pain, our ancestors are with us in our pain. Now that seemed to make a lot of sense to me. When I think of the quintessential Quaker activist ancestor, I think of Bayard Rustin. And oh, the pain he saw in his activist work. To mentor and cradle the young activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into nonviolent tactics, only to see Dr. King abandon him when leaders in the civil rights movement said Rustin’s gayness was a liability, oh the pain. How did he survive that pain? He didn’t shove it down with a glass of water, he sat with it, he looked deeply at it, until he transmutated it into wisdom.<br />
<br />
The life of the activist will undoubtedly have pain in it. Sometimes the pain is a small defeat, but sometimes the pain is a complete crisis. That crisis can either be a danger that starves our bodies and souls, or it can be the opportunity into evolution. We must remember to pray to our inner most spirits, and we must remember to sing. But most importantly, we must allow our hearts to break. In trying to hold it together, we never allow anyone else to come touch our pain, and we don’t feel the touch of another, we never feel that they have scars too. Continuing Revolution this year will have a whole new set of memories that I will add to my Pendle Hill collections, some of them are your scars, it will also be the knowledge that it is the pain of others that calls us into action. When we allow that pain to be, we see it for what it is, that which connects us to one another, that which calls G-d, the Light, and our ancestors to us. Ashe and amen.<br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-81423287095212628402017-03-08T17:04:00.000-08:002017-03-08T17:04:30.728-08:00to rainbeaus who've considered suicide when they are enuf<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGdPWaOdosZU4fGIxkNmC_XImOhn2tqtScdlVMncTbqkKCpxfFpOOzn7LEqykdyGVFd4tIxSN1ZhA9x18JQHgUErtTa1Ak6AivdCaVtc4MG-QvctAZ-5cBxEJAyL8DfabDZ7YuihkwO8/s1600/blackstatueofliberty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGdPWaOdosZU4fGIxkNmC_XImOhn2tqtScdlVMncTbqkKCpxfFpOOzn7LEqykdyGVFd4tIxSN1ZhA9x18JQHgUErtTa1Ak6AivdCaVtc4MG-QvctAZ-5cBxEJAyL8DfabDZ7YuihkwO8/s640/blackstatueofliberty.jpg" width="583" height="640" /></a></div><i>after ntozake shange, kendrick lamar and gavin grimm</i><br />
<br />
all our lives we gots to fight<br />
rainbeaus<br />
all our lives<br />
to use the bathroom<br />
we gots to fight<br />
to drink the water<br />
we gots t' fight<br />
to go to school<br />
not all rubied and bruised<br />
not all covered in phlegm<br />
not all scoured from white wash<br />
that wants to cut our dreads<br />
that wants to take our drums of communication<br />
that wants to erase our ancestors<br />
that wants to circumcise our divinity<br />
<br />
we gots t' fight<br />
for a future<br />
of non-gendered language<br />
til we borderless again<br />
naked and free<br />
from political regime<br />
like gawd intended<br />
<br />
we gots t' fight<br />
for a future<br />
where they won't steal the blood<br />
of our mothers<br />
and flip it for some profit<br />
where we harness the energy of the moon<br />
causing spiritual boom<br />
<br />
so listen now blood<br />
the statue of liberty<br />
is black and full of rage<br />
so high lost her direction<br />
pimp named agent orange<br />
in her ear<br />
with dreams of dominion<br />
it only cost the roost<br />
<br />
but once she take that red pill<br />
she put that curanderismo<br />
juba ju-ju on it<br />
an' slay<br />
she gather up primordial goddess n' ankh<br />
an' be in formation AF<br />
she instate the council of 13 grandmothers<br />
she done with purified identity politik<br />
an' waiting on old men to decide our fate<br />
she blow out the torch an' say<br />
all our live we gots t' fight<br />
rainbeausTai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-11046364369160877582017-01-19T04:55:00.001-08:002017-01-19T04:55:55.205-08:00a drinking gourd<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JeaFjXyyjDhA1dxKWchXue3TPUSueMdMB90nvg5hVlz_MLa8PGJ1sr2RUYay_jjYOqefCFMG_7SDcvLR21FE0gtzEY3cFO3jkv_wAfK0JKjodT3AP5gWLta3hfcaVcI5ZyCl2J_IpO8/s1600/drinking-gourd-l-cooper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JeaFjXyyjDhA1dxKWchXue3TPUSueMdMB90nvg5hVlz_MLa8PGJ1sr2RUYay_jjYOqefCFMG_7SDcvLR21FE0gtzEY3cFO3jkv_wAfK0JKjodT3AP5gWLta3hfcaVcI5ZyCl2J_IpO8/s320/drinking-gourd-l-cooper.jpg" width="320" height="246" /></a></div>A drinking gourd<br />
<br />
To to mama wata, the iyami, the primordial mothers of the creator, the red black and green of africa, the quiet warriors in swamps of seminole, the geechee/gullah on islands of rice and cracks of whip, the the sarah’s on underground railroads, the irish quakers with abolitionist maps, the preachers and poets, the singers and black banjo players, the ida b. wells a man was lynched today, the howard thurmans in the silence of blackness and the disinherited jesus, to the gay commie bayard rustin, the full self audre lorde, the face smashed but light in tact fannie lou hamer, the children first ella baker,to spit talkin’ amiri baraka, to the black chinese giant grace lee boggs, woman and man kari edwards, teacher of dreads akilah oliver, and to the justice seer vincent harding, i hear where my grandmother is from, i see her<br />
<br />
I see you in the depths of the belly<br />
I see you on the slave block<br />
I see you cutting your hands on cotton<br />
I see you take those whips like a good nigga<br />
I see you hiding the names of our gods in our songs and writing the words of the drum on our hearts<br />
I see you drinking to forget the child sold down the river<br />
I see you uncle tomming the hurt of your wife taken by massuh nightly<br />
I see you stealing literacy<br />
I see you writing the map to freedom in blood<br />
I see you sanctifying nature with your strange fruit<br />
<br />
And to the<br />
People who think they white<br />
I reverse engineered your dog whistle<br />
Donald trump doesn’t care<br />
About white people<br />
When mama gaia gets a fever<br />
You will burn in the fire next time<br />
Like the rest of us<br />
Your ancestral savior, john brown, knew that<br />
And went flame retardant<br />
But you stand in picket lines<br />
For potus<br />
And tweet a petition<br />
You excommunicate your grandmother<br />
On facebook<br />
Cause she made the same choice<br />
You would have in her shoes<br />
You speak with someone else’s voice<br />
But neglect your own<br />
You’ve left your ancestors<br />
In the old world and stole<br />
New ones<br />
Which you promptly burned<br />
On magazine covers<br />
You buried the magic of herbs and roots<br />
Dig it up again<br />
And sell all your belongings<br />
Back to the credit card company<br />
That leased them to you<br />
In exchange for your slave ships<br />
And amistad friendships<br />
Like we did before<br />
The irish were exploited<br />
For their desperation<br />
In a world built on hate<br />
So we can halt the machine<br />
Of our inevitable demise<br />
<br />
And to the<br />
Peple who think they black<br />
I got my race card dog whistle<br />
Let’s go back to africa again<br />
Where gods and goddesses look like us<br />
Dark and queer as hell<br />
Let’s go to the lynching tree<br />
And heal her roots<br />
Let’s shut up already and<br />
Talk with drums again<br />
Let’s dial 1.900.save.a.coon<br />
Let’s have days celebrating<br />
Some black folkx<br />
Other than mlk<br />
This lawrence fiery kansas<br />
On langston hughes day<br />
We whisper rivers<br />
In the ears of our elders<br />
Our words kiss black skin<br />
On tiger dowdell day<br />
We wear black gloves<br />
And speak only black love<br />
We pour liquor to<br />
Martyrs of the<br />
Cop’s gun<br />
Erect monuments to<br />
Black potential snuffed<br />
And relit<br />
What was snuffed<br />
Get lit<br />
Get lit<br />
Ashe almighty<br />
Ma the world<br />
Get lit<br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-33115908601112046742017-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:002017-01-01T13:29:44.298-08:00Imani: Belief In One's Ancestors<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi7U9Tp_i7Q2-lecUH8JdLn70IcE0eWjGm5aVLvvFa2Jmjl-1d8Ovx9j_i5wU-eXsU21y9vWqGz8Z9vfhKRIwDCMxFdl-tPfD8L95RGQYBj-eNyu8cv5TjzRMXVhLXbNPZ68BIXlE_BBk/s1600/imani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi7U9Tp_i7Q2-lecUH8JdLn70IcE0eWjGm5aVLvvFa2Jmjl-1d8Ovx9j_i5wU-eXsU21y9vWqGz8Z9vfhKRIwDCMxFdl-tPfD8L95RGQYBj-eNyu8cv5TjzRMXVhLXbNPZ68BIXlE_BBk/s320/imani.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Habari Gani! We just got home from Alanna Naledi's first Quaker Meeting for Worship in Michigan with my dad. Dad's in the kitchen trying to finish up the Harambee cake he makes every year, a three layered cake with red, white and yellow layers and a brown icing to represent the four races of humans. Harambee is Swahili for "All pull together" and is the motto of Kenya. The cake is something he's made every year of my life to teach us that in order to survive and thrive, all races must come together.<br />
<br />
Today's principle, Imani, is the principle symbolizing faith. Most people think this means faith and belief in God, but the Kwanzaa principle is more about faith and belief in one another. We know already that hatred is on the rise in this world, but we must believe that there is something beyond that, or else getting through it will never be possible. I know that my ancestors had to have this kind of faith or they would never have survived the horrors of MAAFA, the Middle Passage where so many of my ancestors were tortured and murdered before even reaching the "New World" where more of them were tortured and murdered.Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-16546195303143137462016-12-30T19:24:00.000-08:002016-12-30T19:24:01.489-08:00Nia: Everyone Must LIVE Their Purpose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzI-EmJK1kxzVLE_XObU8Gw4lvZuELDthe2SwkjNp7hv5roMy2J-0cofYkUIFGhRR9XeI-TNOyGB9kNFa9bPB33rFChwaLmZ7FcAzQL5dqSyDmNgU3h96Qp7QQ4CT_K3c-EhesUv_WiA/s1600/niaprinciple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzI-EmJK1kxzVLE_XObU8Gw4lvZuELDthe2SwkjNp7hv5roMy2J-0cofYkUIFGhRR9XeI-TNOyGB9kNFa9bPB33rFChwaLmZ7FcAzQL5dqSyDmNgU3h96Qp7QQ4CT_K3c-EhesUv_WiA/s320/niaprinciple.jpg" width="320" height="213" /></a></div><br />
Habari Gani! Alanna Naledi has been running me around with her tired hyper activity since arriving at my father's house in Ann Arbor. That's how she is after 10 hours in the car, just wanting to run around in circles, because she slept most of the ride. But it means that it isn't until after she crashes and I am on the verge myself that I can write this.<br />
<br />
I've been thinking all day about today's principle though, the principle of Nia, our purpose. I think of priest Malidoma Some of the Dagar tribe in Burkina Faso in Western Africa. He teaches that everyone comes into the world with a purpose, and that the elders ask that purpose while the child is still in the womb, so that they can prepare the path for that purpose. Malidoma also says that all evil action comes out of the forgetting of one's purpose. Furthermore, when this evil action occurs, it is considered the responsibility of the community to right the wrong by bringing individuals back to their true and original purposes. It is for this reason that we must always remember and live out our purposes and help others so that we can re-member the lost. May it be so. Ashe.Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-54211115523112341962016-12-30T01:28:00.001-08:002016-12-31T10:52:31.451-08:00KUUMBA: Make Something Unforgettable<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9kdtlr_soOGhDkH8SgiF4JupZUTZdSizQ_IGq8qqiYIlsg31KWj_14onbfoTxZYoKMy61UVNp6ud-zGE6BRLkCKIKQTzBGWXVhQP1MiYS64Jjgnirtzq6h136ZOeAJpubyCWcmFJZPU/s1600/kuumba.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9kdtlr_soOGhDkH8SgiF4JupZUTZdSizQ_IGq8qqiYIlsg31KWj_14onbfoTxZYoKMy61UVNp6ud-zGE6BRLkCKIKQTzBGWXVhQP1MiYS64Jjgnirtzq6h136ZOeAJpubyCWcmFJZPU/s320/kuumba.png" width="320" height="190"></a></div>Habari Gani! I spent my last night in South Jersey/Philly listening to a hip hop journey with my brother, an emcee named Mai Sankofa, while my daughter Alanna Naledi played different percussion instruments on the floor and my mother and Alanna's mother took a Kundalini class with my Aunt Mimi down the street. We were going through what he thought I should know and take home with me when we stopped on one of this top 5, an artist named Oddisee. I was asking him if he was going to get a big record contract sometime when he said, "Nah, he doesn't want one, he says he's good. He got a family and he making money and he doesn't want to get bigger." I couldn't really say anything to that. I am perpetually a hater of radio rap unless it's a great mind like Kendrick or Nas or something. But still, I had no words for this. My subconscious did though.<br>
<br>
I was laying in my bed, having a good time watching my dreams, until around 4 AM I had one filled with hip hop and samurais and ninjas. One side was the samurai and one side the ninja, I can't really tell you who was who, but my samurai mind says that probably the true heads were represented by the samurai, because they at least had some honor, even though they stole and pillaged like the good militaristic class they represented, but ninjas, ninjas were said to have no code. My ninja mind says that the distinctions were built upon class, the samurai being a "noble" class while the ninja being of lower class, as such, the code was built upon privilige and exploitation and the ninjas did whatever they had to to survive, which sounds exactly like hip hop to me. In the end, this is why I don't get down with one side vs the other side, because all paths lead to God OR the devil. At any rate, I was find watching my mind's movie until one of the characters said, "They want to make the movement forgettable." What was that supposed to mean? I didn't know, but trying to figure it out just took me completely out of the dream until this point right now, where as you can see, I'm sitting in the bathroom at 4:12 AM trying to write down my thoughts because I'm afraid I might lose them.<br>
<br>
They want to make the Movement Forgettable. Oddisee doesn't though, Oddisee knows what will happen. They want to make The Movement forgettable. How do they do that? They take away our creativity. I knew before I even started this meditation on the Kwanzaa Principles that this was going to be the one where I talked about the empire and how it has struck back by "electing" a mad man and how we can't use the master's tools of division no more, but how we need to bring out the heavy artillery of unification and underground collaboration like never before. And then this dream, They want to make the Movement Forgettable. That's what has been done over and over again, that's what's being done right now. From the Black Power Movement to the Flint Water Crisis to Standing Rock, from the Dakota Pipeline to the School to Prison Pipeline, they want to make the Movement Forgettable. Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-51124238150628681742016-12-29T08:33:00.002-08:002016-12-29T08:34:39.058-08:00Ujamaa: $upport Your Local (R)Evolution<img src="webkit-fake-url://abd8d768-0c92-439f-9294-748870b704d0/imagejpeg">Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-80399844197713193612016-12-28T06:01:00.001-08:002016-12-28T06:01:19.564-08:00Ujima: True Solidarity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsSyXQP8u71hHhHQhMypICQKAlVQ6-C7XbHGFfAxICpyySN5wDnSQam3ygy2AnC9bH3LBvrEmtka_RdsIH9dXA5Ukqv3CNNy_Grt2E-UxQMYtjLjyoP4OWz7KpB0LtbxJrydqr-okWCsw/s1600/ujima.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsSyXQP8u71hHhHQhMypICQKAlVQ6-C7XbHGFfAxICpyySN5wDnSQam3ygy2AnC9bH3LBvrEmtka_RdsIH9dXA5Ukqv3CNNy_Grt2E-UxQMYtjLjyoP4OWz7KpB0LtbxJrydqr-okWCsw/s320/ujima.jpg" width="280" height="320" /></a></div>Habari Gani! No sleeping in with Alanna Naledi today, she was ready! Apparently spending the morning at the Please Touch Museum in Philly, celebrating Kwanzaa with a performance by the Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble and then walking around West Philly's Drexel campus for several hours with Aunt Mignon didn't tire her out like it did Mama and Papa. Now I'm left with an achy back and she wants to bang baby food jars together. That's how it goes huh?<br />
<br />
Today is the Kwanzaa Principle Ujima, Collective Work and Responsibility. This concept is best reflected in the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." This phrase has increased in popularity throughout the years but its observance is actually lacking. I mean, when's the last time you saw a village actually raising a child? Even orphans in this country mostly become wards of the state and live their lives in residential facilities run by state employees.<br />
<br />
When I was in high school, I was a part of a group of Christians who thought our only responsibility was to save souls from hell. We didn't care about feeding people's bellies or making sure they had adequate housing and wages. We only cared about the soul. Then, when I graduated, I discovered that Christians didn't have a lock on doing good in the world. I realized that Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists were responsible for much of the justice movements in the world and the Christians were responsible for much of the degradation. And so I sought not just to be a good Christian but to actually change that which was unjust in my community and in this global society.<br />
<br />
I also realized that if I was going to change this world I had to take responsibility for the harm that has been committed. I learned of the femicide in Juarez, Mexico and realized that sexism had created hostile and violent environments for women and who were the main perpetrators? Men. So if femicide and misogyny were going to end, who would have to be the one to end it? Men. That I saw as my responsibility. I could no longer just sit back and watch as women marched to end misogyny and sexism, I had to be in solidarity.<br />
<br />
Right now in the Black Lives Matter movement where I live, there is a lot of emphasis placed on Letters of Solidarity from business for Black Lives Matter Movement and its intersectionalities. But true solidarity is more than a letter, it means standing with pain and oppression so that it becomes your pain and oppression. It means that if my sister or brother is being oppressed then I have to stand next to them because their oppression becomes linked to my own.<br />
<br />
My Sister, Angela Davis, reminds us of how oppressions are linked in her new book, Freedom Is A Constant Struggle. She reminds us that we have to see the local and the global linked, and so I end today's reflection with a quote from her book. She writes, "The militarization of the police leads us to think about Israel and the militarization of the police there--if only the images of the police and not the demonstrators had been shown, one might have assumed that Ferguson was Gaza." This is what we have to fight against, a universal threat of violence calls for a universal village of Freedom Fighters. May it be so. Ashe.Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-3332498314497242522016-12-27T04:46:00.003-08:002016-12-27T05:49:05.583-08:00Kujichagulia: I Define Myself!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ztnoRGxE4OQHu-6dAT-E1URtsokRAQBBjPa2_vQ_gtqOnQKWDjtmUfPFi_m4J1CHSvIN_uyJusmOFcVPfvXijG1YIdfkfY9SOZvGNMb5JyWTrAaZWLhNWRCF742tC3xumlYcm_KIUnM/s1600/kujichagulia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ztnoRGxE4OQHu-6dAT-E1URtsokRAQBBjPa2_vQ_gtqOnQKWDjtmUfPFi_m4J1CHSvIN_uyJusmOFcVPfvXijG1YIdfkfY9SOZvGNMb5JyWTrAaZWLhNWRCF742tC3xumlYcm_KIUnM/s320/kujichagulia.jpg" width="256" height="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Habari Gani! The rain is falling in South Jersey as I write on my phone next to my sleeping family. I'm cared to look at the kitchen at the carcasses of the dishes we devoured on our first night of Kwanzaa, but excited to walk through the echoes of songs, poems and stories shared, kisses, hugs and praises. I'm reflecting on the second principle of Kwanzaa on this second day, Kujichagulia, which means self-determination. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">I've heard it said that people will become what we define them as. If someone is defined as a kind and smart person by others than that is what they will become, if someone is defined as a monster then that is what they will become. Well, in my life I've been defined in many ways. What most comes to mind of course is the negative. When I was younger, a lot of my Black peers didn't like how I talked or acted. They would say I was an Oreo, Black on the outside but white in the middle. While it hurt, it mostly was confusing, because even if I didn't talk like them, I still effected by the acts of racism which was New Jersey in the '90's. I still looked for truth in hip hop. I still locked up my hair and I was still Black.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Interestingly, recently I was told that someone had called me an Uncle Tom, all because I don't yell on FaceBook at business owners in the town I live in who haven't written a letter of solidarity to the local chapter of Black Lives Matter. First off, anyone who knows me knows that yelling at people is not really in my spirit. The hearing of this news hit me in a strange way, the 5 year old Tai Amri was probably still hurt by the news, but 36 year old Tai Amri's basic self was mad and wanting to fight. Like, say that to my face and watch what happens, I'll show you Uncle Tom. 36 year old Tai Amri's Highest Self however thought, "Who cares, just keep being your Highest Self."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Now maybe if I didn't have the Highest Self voice, I would revert to my basic self and to find the person show them how loud I can yell. Or if I didn't have the basic knowledge of self I could take those words as my definition, say to myself that I don't belong in the Black world, it won't accept me and I should stop trying. And then I wouldn't be calling people together to meditate on the principles of Kwanzaa, I wouldn't be helping to build African altars, calling to remember Black ancestors, reciting poems of love to the Black Lives that I love around the country, reminding people on who's backs we stand on and to helping people to understand the African deities of the Yoruba people and the teachings of African priest Malidoma Somé. But no see, I know who I am and I know I get to define myself, and I am a Black freedom fighter and my ONLY weapon is love.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">And when people try and tell me that the Black Lives Matter Movement is a misguided movement, filled with negativity and misguided anger, I will tell them no, I AM Black Lives Matter, and I am filled with the love and pain of my ancestors. We are the Actors and Co-Creators of our reality, nothing comes into being without us. Don't let anyone else decide what you are, throughout every fiber of my bones my ancestors tell and remind me of my Ashe, which is, my Power To Be. Ashe.</span></div>Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-840352318204532721.post-16539537749597472072016-12-26T12:37:00.001-08:002016-12-26T13:01:51.379-08:00Umoja: The (R)Evolution is Unity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFx9beFSVLbzF2_CsJC3dB7JDOWwUkFxMC-t7bCz5I9hH18Jc8nGryneHFWTlgo4PPTmQIL7wxiKyL2AzF2sTPVHvhlzr5dzGjn2PVrhlu3ujaoyFUCgvO0ulMzgfvcluaPpQjJ6NKnA/s1600/umoja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMFx9beFSVLbzF2_CsJC3dB7JDOWwUkFxMC-t7bCz5I9hH18Jc8nGryneHFWTlgo4PPTmQIL7wxiKyL2AzF2sTPVHvhlzr5dzGjn2PVrhlu3ujaoyFUCgvO0ulMzgfvcluaPpQjJ6NKnA/s320/umoja.jpg" width="320" height="320" /></a></div>Habari Gani! (What's the News in Swahili, the greeting during Kwanzaa) Christmas Day in Willingboro, South Jersey-right outside of Philadelphia-was spent recovering from the road trip from Lawrence, Kansas and gearing up for the first day of Kwanzaa, the Principle Umoja. No gifts, no tree, barely any Christmas songs, we didn't even cook, just ordered some bomb Indian food. No, today is the day. We got soul and blues music blasting in the kitchen while the collards simmer and the sweet potato pie cools in the back room. Mama is making her African dishes, peanut stew and the like, the Kinara is waiting to be lit, libations are waiting to be poured, and in about 45 minutes, friends and family arrive with their non-tangible, non-capitalistic gifts to be shared. What I'm trying to say is, this is the most Black Lit season I've ever had.<br />
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Don't get me wrong, I love Jesus, but this year called for something a little more (r)evolutionary. I got my 10 month old daughter, Alanna Naledi, strapped to my chest while she gets some rest so she can beat whatever cold she's trying not to catch and not be so cranky for all the folk she gets to meet for the first time, and I want her to know that Christmas can be white and Kwanzaa can be Black, it's all good.<br />
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The year 2016 needs Kwanzaa, because the year 2016 has been #woke but it's also been #problematic on all sides of the fence. Umoja, the first principle of Unity out of the 7 Principles and days of of Kwanzaa, has been one of the most lacking of principles in the world. True, some Black folk have come together, some white folk have joined the fight who weren't a part of it before, but in other ways there has been more division in 2016 than ever before. So this year, I wanted to write on the principles of Kwanzaa as a meditation, a dedication, to what's real. Let me tell a little story about Unity:<br />
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In the Black community there has always been a struggle for unity, since we got to this land we've had to deal with the different languages and different ways of doing things. During the Civil Rights Movement, this struggle continued. Our ancestors, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin, had to deal with their own struggle to be unified. Dr. King was a fiery, gun-toting, southern preacher when he met Rustin, a communist sympathizing, gay, Quaker pacifist. Because of Rustin's knowledge of Gandhian nonviolent activism, King needed him. But because they were so effective together, the counterrevolution sought to tear them apart. They told King that if he continued to work with Rustin they would start a commie/gay rumor. In fear of the movement, King was forced to deny Rustin and Bayard was forced to the sidelines. That was, until March on Washington needed someone with Rustin's skill. When it was time to march, Rustin stood up and so did King. Now, King could have given into his homophobia and said there was no way that he could work with Rustin's brand of radicalism and intersectionality, and Rustin could have said that King wasn't intersectional enough for him, that in order for him to work with King, King would have to acknowledge his ignorance publicly. But they realized that not only what they were fighting was bigger than their own individualism, but also that they needed each other. So they unified.<br />
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Let's move forward to the inception of the Black Panther party. Many of us know that the counterrevolution helped to bring them down with a mixture of drugs, infiltration and violence. But the lies may have been the most insidious weapon against them. Once people start to see their brothers and sisters as potential enemies, the battle is all but lost. Of course there are always going to be informants in the movement, but it is actually the fear of informants that causes so much disunity within the movement.<br />
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Let's move ahead one more place to the Occupy Movement. In Oakland's Occupy Movement I saw it with my own eyes, the fear that someone was a police officer made it impossible to trust and impossible to work together. But the truth of the matter is this, informants can be turned, it happens all the time. Letting go of fear and hatred and moving in unity and love is the greatest weapon against infiltrators, because in unity and love and acceptance, infiltrators realize that they are on the wrong side of the movement.<br />
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I look today at our own movements, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the No DAPL/Mni Wiconi Movements, and I see how important Unity is. We can spend our time infighting, outfighting, labelling some enemies and some comrades, but it is disunity that will bring down the struggle for freedom.<br />
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This is why, on this day, I choose to never allow anyone to sow and water seeds of discord between me and others. I will not accept claims of who I should and shouldn't work with and will not align myself with counterrevolutionary divisiveness. I will work on creating a culture of calling people into Unity rather than calling them out of disunity, and invite all to stand on this principle Blackness with me. May it be so. Ashe.<br />
Tai Amrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07866785486469548362noreply@blogger.com0