For Us...

In this place
This sacred place
We held so dear to our hearts
And in our collective consciousness
This bothered ground
We call our home;
Our reason to fight and fight again
All in the name of Pan African salvation
We stand in truth
Having resolved our struggle with the pale one
And with one another

To now simply be
Each of us
Doing what we were called to do
As dedication to the promise
Those before us had made
Before relinquishing their very last breaths
To aborted uprisings and public castrations

In this here place
With our hands clutched together
Bowing our heads
As we call upon those who await us
For the renewal of our plight
We so lovingly give homage to
This borrowed soil
On which we’ve chosen
As our point of reference
Without division of any kind
But with the conviction of one force
One people
One objective
Together
In the name of spiritual egression

It is at this moment
That we make the decision
To return to our most basic of rituals
Uninterrupted
As in before captivity and social buffoonery
To look on and ahead
Without the meaning of ‘I’

That this day
We begin at the end
At the beginning again
Our heels fixed firmly
In our agreement to transition
Having learned from our past
Leaving behind the chains that once defined us
And lift our heads towards the All Knowing
To finally
Once and for all
After being forced to despise our own
As we sing the praise of justice and forever
Give the sign
Then disappear.



The concept of a tree for my book cover kept badgering me but I couldn't figure out why, nor what the artisitic details could or should be. That's when Spirit sent one of my students, Rajiv Mahadeo. He'd heard I was looking for a cool design for my first poetry collection. One day he stepped to me with a drawing, and it was one of those surreal moments when telepathy rules! Because he pulled out a piece of paper that had a tree on it with branches appearing as locks and asked, "How's this?"

Look out for this kat. He's about to blow up big time, even if it's just behind the scenes. Thank you again, good brotha!