Miseducation of the Negroes

Mentors like priests preparing me for holy rite Institutional slaves to a false trinity Subduing adventure, exploration and discovery to classroom rigor Eternal stairway ... moonbeams to the golden dream Dismatling who I am so I become who you want me to be Urges denied constructing scaffolds, setting beam Castling on beam, I climb like Jack the ogre tree Ability acquiring arrows for what's embattling me Tensions beyond the classroom, teacher grading my Intelligence as if it were a canvas to her eye Opportunity has too narrow a door for all our differences Nestled in her pocket, I see the ogre search in vain. Offering us like children to the fires of Molech Frantic prayers sibilant in flickering tongues of despair Teeming the locus of the African nightmare Husked of gold, silver, uranium, copper and diamond skies Each one scrambles up the vine compassless of self Nations fall - without the eyes of love we are blind Emerging people shaken out in global disarray Groaning for nothing from classroom to classroom Refer to their budgets and see what is prioritize Oysters get their pearls from pain, I know, yet Errors must be corrected, education must mean more, we Substance truth only by the purge of a regulated history.