feet on the waterhose
It's funny how we can take credit for our wealth when we are balling out of control
but we blame our melanin challenged brothers
when the storm cloud appears and the shadows begin to follow us
When it is our feet on the waterhose
stopping the flow of our evolution
It's true they emptied our minds and filled them with fear
which turned into submission, nurturing the oppression into a festering anger
and with their words they pressed their steeled toes into our necks
and gave us lessons on how to do the same
Now we pretend that these lessons are not the reason we are stuck
We ignore the fight within ourselves
We continue to pack our daughter’s self esteem in brown paper bags
and measure our son’s manhood by the size of his fist
This is the reason we cannot move on
Why we never seem to have enough money to keep the lights on
but we can scramble up a few dollars to pay a bar tab, or
Why our secondary school children seem to be repopulating the Earth on their own
to make up for the ones they themselves put to rest in the streets
Why we so naively thought that the election of a black president was the answer to all of our problems
Like it would be enough of a good representation of all of us
We celebrated with our hands out waiting for the hand outs that were sure to come
Why our children show their asses with pride for the world to see
under the false pretense that fame is glory
The lies we tell ourselves as we keep our feet on the waterhose
The excuses we make never seem to end
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terrence powell is 17 years old and originally from atlanta, georgia but moved to augusta a couple of years back. he loves everything beyoncé and one day he hopes to be either a diva, or a female version of a hustla. he doesn't really consider himself a poet but more so a person who writes down his feelings creatively and shares them with everyone else. you can find him actively blogging at http://asmywordspeaks.