What's In a Name?

For what do I carry you like a special mark Like a brand I recognize, not you I live in it like an old tree lives in its bark Lashed and leashed to nothing new Yet you are mine, my first piece of property My bargain to belong to a history I own what I paid nothing for, my first jewelry A gift to your claim on me: ancestry? In some far forgotten place of sacred meaning It would have summed me for all To understand my life, character's firm clothing For some a honey throne, for others gall Did anyone ask me, did I have a choice in this Ascribed distinction of individuality? Something unjust warps truth, while you insist On hypocritical values of equality. Take name and this history from me, and see Joy eagles unfettered skies, for I Am made to bear the master's vilest identity Imposed on race with dark slavery Gathered from our Africa home, stripped bare Like the land, raped and mined of who I am, without continuity, or exit from this fear Searching for my past, my name leads to you. And my older brothers, children of broken bonds Meet as strangers in a callous street Nameless, tongueless, uncultured hate stands In broken memory at thy devil's feet.