ALL I WANT TO SAY

My people have forgotten their history and celebrate santa claus,
The fruits of our society harvested from the soil of Jim Crow laws,
They have built prisons where black and brown bodies used to hang,
And every black man's new alliance is criminalized into a gang,
Systems of oppression profiting on prisons as in the days slavery,
Blindly we parley with policy makers who gloat in their own knavery,
The man with a badge and a pistol has replaced the overseer,
To wage war on a race that has never found peace here.

They have built fortunes form stolen Henrietta cells,
Stripped her name from history to aggrandize their selves,
Buried her importance in the shallow graves of their history,
Now I understand why Mamie Till had an open casket to tell her story.
On this land where the law is race conscious we'll never belong,
They have changed the lyrics to the music but not the tune to song,
They never want to listen unless we approach the table with guns drawn,
And still the caged bird is yet to soar the winds of freedom once known.

SISTER

You're a friend and a confidant,

Through the years I've leaned on you,

Your heart has always been true and never wavering,

You're the brother I've always wanted,

And the sister I could never ask for,
Everything about you is beautiful,
Always putting the needs of others before yours,
Your love is deeper than oceans that separate us,
And though the distance does separate,
You are never far from me,
For no matter where life leads us to,
I will always feel the warmth of your thoughts,
We can laugh to tears at the simplest things,
Without a care of what the world would say,
For we have a language that only we understand,
I'm so blessed to have you as a sister,