eternal

it’s been a long while,
since I’ve confided within the solace of nylon strings & keyboarded screens,
so much so,
words that had once tumbled from tongue and tooth toward ear and soul,
have long run their course and died,
pulled upon a mound of broken promise and sad carcass,
by whatever voice drives the morality behind my soul. 

& upon this throne of lies I sit,
high above those whom society has deemed to be greater stepping stones than human beings,
cast from the womb to grave within earshot of reality’s vagabond tune,
penned from innocence & ignorance,
sung sweet and hung low so as not to become strange fruit in our sad excuse for Eden.

if I am to eat,
it shall be the broken shards of pride and worth harvested from my motionless garden,
if I am to drink,
it shall be to swallow the bitter hostility bursting forth from eyes that have seen most love leave than remain,
if I am to sleep,
breath shall cease to fill the blackened cavities that surround this body’s inconsistent heart,
for the only rest us wicked shall ever receive is wonderfully enteral.

seasons pass

as the seasons pass,

fleeting in length & ripe with disorder,

we struggle to grow with the responsibility of being apart of an earth;

a people so beautiful and so evil,

male privilege built upon oppression sown deep within this melanin,

fed fat with a spoon so silver that being brown will not hide the male hypocrisy.

we are born into this fatal fraternity,

who's place was carved upon the world with violence unbeknownst to this existence,

all in the name of what it means to be a man;

you see your Bible taught us young that our mothers, our sisters, our lovers are hewn from a man's rib instead of by his side,

or Lord forbid before man ever drew breath, red and black lettering curated by the weak hearted and oppressive;

masquerading behind the veil our fragile male egos created long ago.

we drown your cries with legislation, 

your suffering with capitalism, 

your rights with our own,

& the system purges on...

bleaching the knowledge of our ancestors;

erasing history of mothers, daughters, sisters, & lovers until the narrative we've maintained to keep our comfort is forever more.

we talk as if we know,

we walk as if we've given life,

we sing as if it were us that heard;

those stars are too high to reach, 

& them clouds ain't for you,

so why don't you stay home and take of the kids.

as true as my words may be, they come from a voice;

a place of privilege built upon the wombs of the women around this earth.

it is time we unpack the toxic masculinity that has poisoned not only our minds but our hearts; 

& the first step we can take as men,

the first thing we can do,

is understand any experience not of our own is just as powerful; as valid; as precious as our own.