I know that you know
that I feel
everything you don’t say.
Eight Minutes, Forty Six seconds is all it took
For another black man's life to be took
Now look at how,
History is re-writing itself
New civil law right books
Will soon be placed on the bookshelf
A nation Suppress
A nation Distress
Will only make nations vex
It's time we ADDRESS
The things that makes us STRESSED
Mankind was not created to be Cruel or DEPRESSED
We need to Confess that we are OBSESSED
By making others feel Useless and OPPRESSED
Eight Minutes, Forty Six Seconds
Another Black man is dead
All it took was for someone to lose his head
That's what I read,
Another black man abused and dead
Within seconds the news was spread
Another Black man blood was shed
At least that's what the news said,
Officer lost his head
While victim laid unconscious and dead
Eight Minutes and Forty Eight seconds is all it took
For another Black man to be abused, shot and dead.
All bones bend before
Breaking a leg collapses
all resolve to walk
Orienting
A time of pain
Lost in your mind
Playing games
The will of hers
Is strong like his
Soothing like furs
The weakest wills
Without domination
Or scepters gaze
No one will beat sin
Or get past this phase
The few have seen it
The few do know
Majority fails
While shadows glow
Walking the path
Is older now
Then gliding through it
Past Satan’s bow
No one can tell you
What lies past the way
So take back the two
And conquer those who stay
Though few have seen it
Not many do know
That when majority fails
Our shadows will glow
Pick up the ashes
Retrieve lost tears
Stand up beside us
Let go of your fears
No more wandering
Alone in ourselves
Take back what was once yours
From a life you once dwelled
Lots of praise, but little respect,
So many days, what do they expect?
My job is a maze, to serve and protect.
It hardly pays, last time I checked.
Into past I gaze, hardly time to reflect.
Could have gone many ways, why select,
My choice displays, too late to defect.
Myself I amaze, or does it infect.
Setting soul ablaze, leaving it unchecked.
Was it just a phase, or did I overprotect.
I now have malaise, in complete misdirect.
Retirement delays, takes the toll to intersect.
I gained a little praise, without any respect.
written for
Put Your Best Rhyme Forward!!!!! Free Poetry Contest
written by
Cecil Hickman
date written
12-07-13
I don't know what to tell you except
that I'm losing myself, trying
desperately to manage the cards I
been dealt, I know your situation
there's a lot on your belt, but help is
on the way and that's a note to self.
Everything isn't what it seems and I
don't know exactly what you're
going threw I just know I been here
for you this long and still I'm here
for you, we'll make it threw this
even this storm too shall past, I'll try
to give you what you never had and
that's love that lasts
I went to Church this morning with my head already bowed.
I would hear the sermon, but my heart was heavy now.
Sooner or later I would put my offering on the plate.
And tied to that offering was an envelope with my name.
I wouldn’t relent using the envelope; it was a matter of pride to me.
Even if a few would know my plight and shame, this eve.
Truly it was all I had… but giving less isn’t a sin,
So I tried to hold my head up, as I put the envelope in.
Last Sunday I didn’t go, and regrets have plagued me so…
So here I am at church with both my head and heart rightly bowed.
Jesus gave us a parable of a poor woman and what she gave.
Would I have less courage than to do the same?
The church is built upon offerings and dutiful work, too.
And I’m unable to work so the offering will have to do.
Forty-Six Cents may not seem like much.
But I will pay my portion as best as I can do.
The amount isn’t monumental and maybe won’t be felt.
But even small amounts help add to the Church’s work.
So as I lay my envelope down… It is with some small hope…
My prayer this day became… that in some small way it will be felt.
It was the second Saturday of the month
In the afternoon, before lunch, we made love
It has become our ceremonial sacrament.
I entered her, and I thought,
Does she feel anything?
Beyond my curiosity, it was nice
An out of body experience
Propelling forward
Drawing back
Impaling her like
A surgeon engraves a patient
Making his mark
Just as I made mine.
So many Saturdays
Stealing the purity from
The marriage bed
Attempting to not make evidence
I mounted her
straddling her thighs
Looking at the family photo above the bed
Her horizontal skin adhering to mine
It is odd that I felt this way for her
As I laid on top of her
Ears rubbing
Necks caressing
Bodies uniquely intertwining
like octopuses
fighting over the same boat
We had to stop.
As I quietly left, tucking her under the covers
Leaving my forty-six dollars and fifty-eight cents
On the kitchen counter
for my services and
fresh box of condoms,
Placing the cum filled contraceptive
in her husbands slippers
Knowing he comes home from work tired;
hopefully as tired as I made his wife.
make me a birthday cake
then remove ten of the candles
then you can love the girl
beneath the woman
forty-six candles makes a glaring
light....when you love a thirty-six
someone the same night
take care not to disturb
the cake and all; you just
slip around and get
the ten candles off
forty-six candles make a glaring
light....the man that you love
turns thirty-six this same night
take them away
....take my hand
we will dance woman to man
to the thirty six candles on
our cake tonight
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