Every day I pray
Ask God for salvation for the ones left behind
Dusk will never find them
Their life ran out of time
We’ll lay them down
Heaven bound
Still searching for those lost and never found
Death runs this town
It wears the crown
Rules over war filled streets
And seized heart beats
There’s no escape
No rescue
When loss gets the best of you
Pay condolences for the ones close to you
Pour out liquor for the ones you never knew
So pour out juice and gin…
Rock their pins
Attend funerals
And memorials all year round
While gunshots still ring out
We’ll block out the sound
And ignore the root causes
We’re living in a generation that’s lost
To systems that bank on our death for profit
A government that locks our kids up
Then leaves them jobless
Though we perpetuate it
We aren’t the ones that cause it
I wish we could find the self love to stop it
“They’re” dying
Means “we’re” dying
We’ve lost the battle
But we can still win the war
That is what our ancestors died fighting for
So I’ll keep praying
Every day
That tomorrow what I pray for won’t have to be the same as the things I prayed for today...
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Perfect Love
Maybe this perfect love was too perfect
Maybe the Immaculate Conception that birthed it
Was far too much for human hands
So it spilled out of our grasp
Into puddles on the floor
Washed away by ignorant tears
Unknowing that those years meant nothing
They don’t get written into history books
Because like a crook, you stole the past
Like a thief, you took the only love that ever loved me back
Maybe this perfect love was too perfect
Or maybe I just wasn’t worth it
But you loved on me like I was the only love that mattered
When you said goodbye
That last time
That part of my existence shattered
Maybe I lived our love differently
But now what does it matter?
I was reaching for eternity
But you threw me from the ladder
Because you were too scared of perfect
Or at least that’s what I gathered
At least that’s what I convinced myself during that long journey through goodbye
But I made that trip gracefully
You took almost everything but my pride
Packed away in my suitcase, everything from love I kept
Mistakes and regret
Broken promises and lost bets
Turned around and almost lost step
When ignorance replaced fact
And I was forced to face the realization that this time you weren’t running after me
This time you weren’t coming back for me
Maybe this love was never mine to begin with
But if this isn’t perfect love then what is it?
What could possibly be worth more?
But hurt less
What do I keep looking for
Once I’ve already had the best?
Who is this prince charming I’m expected to invest in
Again
When you were my greatest investment
Maybe this perfect love was just too perfect
Maybe the devil knew we would be innovators of the trend
Foolish were we to think that destiny was ours to mend
Or maybe God took back this perfect love
Because blessings are just lent
Whatever the reason
Whoever to blame
That perfect love is resting now
Upon broken sill window pain
My love is no longer our love
Will never be the same
My greatest fear
Too devastating to bear
Our love was the only true love
I’ve lost my greatest friend
And now the world may never know perfect love again
Maybe the Immaculate Conception that birthed it
Was far too much for human hands
So it spilled out of our grasp
Into puddles on the floor
Washed away by ignorant tears
Unknowing that those years meant nothing
They don’t get written into history books
Because like a crook, you stole the past
Like a thief, you took the only love that ever loved me back
Maybe this perfect love was too perfect
Or maybe I just wasn’t worth it
But you loved on me like I was the only love that mattered
When you said goodbye
That last time
That part of my existence shattered
Maybe I lived our love differently
But now what does it matter?
I was reaching for eternity
But you threw me from the ladder
Because you were too scared of perfect
Or at least that’s what I gathered
At least that’s what I convinced myself during that long journey through goodbye
But I made that trip gracefully
You took almost everything but my pride
Packed away in my suitcase, everything from love I kept
Mistakes and regret
Broken promises and lost bets
Turned around and almost lost step
When ignorance replaced fact
And I was forced to face the realization that this time you weren’t running after me
This time you weren’t coming back for me
Maybe this love was never mine to begin with
But if this isn’t perfect love then what is it?
What could possibly be worth more?
But hurt less
What do I keep looking for
Once I’ve already had the best?
Who is this prince charming I’m expected to invest in
Again
When you were my greatest investment
Maybe this perfect love was just too perfect
Maybe the devil knew we would be innovators of the trend
Foolish were we to think that destiny was ours to mend
Or maybe God took back this perfect love
Because blessings are just lent
Whatever the reason
Whoever to blame
That perfect love is resting now
Upon broken sill window pain
My love is no longer our love
Will never be the same
My greatest fear
Too devastating to bear
Our love was the only true love
I’ve lost my greatest friend
And now the world may never know perfect love again
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
"I don't want nobody stumbling after me...THAT is why I keep on."
I am mother and child
I hear sounds of torn history ripped at the seams
I see child's hands reaching for stars
Trying desperately to grasp dreams
I long to know their stories of sacrificial glory
I am mother and child
I pretend sometimes that I lived in their time
Their story bound with mine
I feel a oneness with their lineage and it's what grounds me in my potential
My ability to be great
I touch dried tears of rescue delivered too late
I worry that my existence is bound to that struggle
And that dreams disposed of are forever lost to the rubble
I cry at the thought that they will never see hard work pay off
That they might never know the reward
And die only knowing the cost
I am mother and child
I know their selfishness was only part choice
The rest, no more than forced consequences for women with no voice
I say that I don't hold tight to the resentment
But I fall victim to projection and regression to past days
When they were one and the same
I dream of reconciliation between my desires and my patience
I try to give in to the purpose within
I hope one day change comes
Because I am mother and child
And decades of times gone by piled upon rubble and concrete
Rooted in history that devoted itself to the masterpiece that is me...
I hear sounds of torn history ripped at the seams
I see child's hands reaching for stars
Trying desperately to grasp dreams
I long to know their stories of sacrificial glory
I am mother and child
I pretend sometimes that I lived in their time
Their story bound with mine
I feel a oneness with their lineage and it's what grounds me in my potential
My ability to be great
I touch dried tears of rescue delivered too late
I worry that my existence is bound to that struggle
And that dreams disposed of are forever lost to the rubble
I cry at the thought that they will never see hard work pay off
That they might never know the reward
And die only knowing the cost
I am mother and child
I know their selfishness was only part choice
The rest, no more than forced consequences for women with no voice
I say that I don't hold tight to the resentment
But I fall victim to projection and regression to past days
When they were one and the same
I dream of reconciliation between my desires and my patience
I try to give in to the purpose within
I hope one day change comes
Because I am mother and child
And decades of times gone by piled upon rubble and concrete
Rooted in history that devoted itself to the masterpiece that is me...
Anyway Poem
Written By: Kent M. Keith (Attributed to Mother Teresa)
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Patience Wont Break These Chains.
“Racism is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason.”
-Abraham J. Heschel
My skin is not a choice
If it were, I'd still choose it
I wear it like an open wound
Translucent
Undisputed
Still we have something to prove
400 years of enslavement
Still owed unpaid dues
We’ll pay with our lives and have to die for it too
Most will never understand
The burden of this flesh
Cursed with the demand to do more
But still receive less
So they’ll go on ignoring
That it’s my everyday existence
This skin: a bitter-sweet blessing in disguise
A complimentary prison
We didn’t choose this
But it’s what keeps us rooted
Futile catastrophe
Minute enormity
This tiny empire lives inside of me
Breeds disgust for a scorn nation
Whose every investment is rooted in race relations
Fallen fallacy
Collapses into the laps of those who endure it
But power stays stagnant in the hands of the ones who refuse to cure it
And it’s always been a Black problem
A Negro problem
An African-American problem
Granted the burden to fix them
But not given the equation to solve them
We are still hurting
Centuries of having it instilled in our brains
That we aren’t worth it
Aren’t deserving of God given rights
To which we were birthed in
But it’s where we’ve gained our fight
To be greater than
Stronger than
Those who told us we’d never make it
So we have to take it
Because everything stays the same with patience
And hate isn’t tamed with patience
And freedom isn’t gained with patience
And pain is not healed with patience
And chains don’t break with patience
And change don’t come with patience
Change has NEVER come with patience
-Abraham J. Heschel
My skin is not a choice
If it were, I'd still choose it
I wear it like an open wound
Translucent
Undisputed
Still we have something to prove
400 years of enslavement
Still owed unpaid dues
We’ll pay with our lives and have to die for it too
Most will never understand
The burden of this flesh
Cursed with the demand to do more
But still receive less
So they’ll go on ignoring
That it’s my everyday existence
This skin: a bitter-sweet blessing in disguise
A complimentary prison
We didn’t choose this
But it’s what keeps us rooted
Futile catastrophe
Minute enormity
This tiny empire lives inside of me
Breeds disgust for a scorn nation
Whose every investment is rooted in race relations
Fallen fallacy
Collapses into the laps of those who endure it
But power stays stagnant in the hands of the ones who refuse to cure it
And it’s always been a Black problem
A Negro problem
An African-American problem
Granted the burden to fix them
But not given the equation to solve them
We are still hurting
Centuries of having it instilled in our brains
That we aren’t worth it
Aren’t deserving of God given rights
To which we were birthed in
But it’s where we’ve gained our fight
To be greater than
Stronger than
Those who told us we’d never make it
So we have to take it
Because everything stays the same with patience
And hate isn’t tamed with patience
And freedom isn’t gained with patience
And pain is not healed with patience
And chains don’t break with patience
And change don’t come with patience
Change has NEVER come with patience
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Check out my feature in Alwayz Therro Magazine!
http://www.alwayztherro.com/2011/05/05/rated-next-roselyn-berry/
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