Attica To Alcatraz
From sea to shining sea,
‘Merica ain’t never been nothin’ but
a prison for
angry black boys like me
Childish rage moved my hands,
hateful oppression reaction expression
made me feel iron containment
Understanding finally came,
when I began to reason as a man,
not a beast ... a blank history page
lashing out mindlessly in a lion cage
Knowledge was the skeleton key
which unlocked
the bone secrets of antiquity:
Our cultural ash memory
tossed to the watery deep of irrelevancy
A stolen heritage
drown trussed in the Atlantic sea
A peaceful alchemy transformation
was the guinea pig release
setting this bird of fire Exodus free
Shackled from the day
we were brought
to this bitter, strange fruit ground
Papa Justify
told Fiddler and Kizzy,
you in ‘Merica ... so, dance
and sing
when you hear the Dixie flag sound
Sadly, our swollen eyes looked up
to the sweltering, captivity sky
As our runaway fears
were bloodhound chased,
to the northern star tabernacle side
From Attica to Alcatraz,
we’ve been progressively plantation movin’
swiftly back to the past
While the golden amber
milk carton alert
has been Five-O siren blastin’
All us tar babies
have been code blue cryin’
and white cells missin’
in the red dirt
From see to darkly see,
nobody seems to hear our hurt
‘Merica’s in a deep beauty sleep,
as the iron bars are openin’
Somebody up there,
who loves me,
has heard our 400 years of tears ...
and set the pain free
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2018
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