A Collaborative Effort With walkerjo lee |Music: Jill Scott-My Petition
pay me for the many bodies slain
in cold blood at the hand of their
protectors for simply being alive
for walking down an unfamiliar street
for pulling out a wallet
for covering his child with his body
for revealing a water gun
for breathing air that is free in
a country that charges me for water
in a plastic cup bound to kill
me twenty years from now
for a woman knowing her rights
and unafraid to back down when faced
by fake authority
for gentrification
for replacement of all things familiar
in a neighborhood that needs complacency
to build it up during its struggle
pay me for scheming my ancestors
moons ago with slanderish tongues
bathed in honey
for neverending lies
for belligerence
for bigotry
for disguises in broad daylight
for the Ku Klux Klan
that will burn my community by dawn’s early light.
oh, say can you see?
for i am owed,
much more than can be repaid!
therefore,
i have the right:
to take a knee on any new age plantation field
to reject the bullshit that white supremacy truly is
to dodge PEACEkeepers that have a badge to kill
they serve money and the news/poliTRICKS and corporations have quotas and dues/bait trucks filled with shoes?
my country tis’ of thee —
WE the people, will lose.
i have the right:
to be this color face
zero damns left to give
sacrifice this lie that’s become a goddamn disgrace
still it questions the I in ME?!
i have the right:
to choose an alternate reality
to love and live.
i have the right:
to be this black moon
these copper colored blues
to travel with these autumn colored leaves
decorated in this auburn flesh
skin tones thick with tribe
standing with bronze feet in gold suns
textures of faith armed with all this love
they said, i couldn’t have/i couldn’t be
this speech, touched by godS/moved by ancestors/guided by winds
like, trees/ocean bottoms/creation
i ain’t to be moved
I AM owed!
i have the right:
to not have my skin rigged
a weapon against me!
how can i be victim AND criminal?!
fuck this place as a nation!
i have the right,
to be this color of pride
pay me, nation of forgetfulness
for years of contemplation and misguided ways
for unearthed demons in positions of power
for silencers and AK-47s and Mac10s
and the nerve to say we asked for it
pay me for everything I am due
and increase it tenfold
but, how do you put a price
on a dwindling race in a nation
that wants to annihilate it?
©Tremaine L. Loadholt & Walker Jo Lee, 2018. All Rights Reserved
*No one else could have written this with me. It came to me when it did and I immediately sent the draft to Walker. Originally posted in A Cornered Gurl on Medium.
Thank you for reading.
Mind blown!
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Hey! Thank you!
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a masterpiece filled with so much truth and an anthem in an of itself. Kudos to you both my friend ❤
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Thank you!
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A powerful piece of work. I feel your passion. Respect to you both.
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Thank you, Faith. I’m grateful to see how well-received this is.
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Black women will save the world…
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Hey, you! That’s my dream. I hope it’ll come true.
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https://ibb.co/dBe2ze
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“i have the right:
to choose an alternate reality
to love and live.” Yes!!
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Haha. Boom!
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🙂
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Well written thank you
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Thank you for reading.
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Can’t say anything to this except DAMN!! African Americans are a dwindling race in America because of lower birth rates BUT black people are increasing in immigration especially to Europe and parts of America and so new black culture and faces are coming in, and changing the culture because technically they’re not African American and may not have the history of being enslaved but they bring new ideas like an increase in emphasis on education. I grew up in France with mostly Jamaican and Haiti and Ivory coast kids but now they’re mostly Muslim. Interesting to see shifts. Nothing will take black people out of America, America wouldn’t be America otherwise. This was a superb collaboration. A real war cry. Hitting in the belly.
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This right here:
“Nothing will take black people out of America, America wouldn’t be America otherwise.”
Precisely. Thank you for reading and responding. 🙂
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Loved your collaboration well done to you both it was seamless which most people can’t achieve writing together but you both did.
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Thank you! Walker and I have written so many pieces together. I can drum up something and she can pounce on it and run with it and she can concoct something and I can flow with it easily. It seems, we just know each other’s writing so well, we know where to go when we need to go with it, and how. This one, though, is my personal favorite. Thank you again!
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You DO work well together! Excellent here.
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Thank you. 💙
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Wow! So very powerful. The piece could be examined and discussed for days.
This country needs many and frequent reminders of its ugly realities. It’s the only way change will happen. Thank you for sharing! Blessings.
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Thank you for reading and responding, Patty!
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