to the bottle boy

To the bottle boy 


Your soiled clothes gave it awayIt was not the horn you blew
Like trumpets announcing the arrival of the king
Not a shofar but Shabbab
A young man with a shopping cart full of bottles
Who hoped in and out of dumpsters
As touring tourist rush to see the tomb
The garden trace the footprints of a savior
In your backyard
The political implications
The religious conflict that seems less real the longer I'm here
For the call to worship at 3 am reminds me
This is not a land of just one but of many who live
And breathe and love and worship even

Admist rocks and tank rockets and checkpoints
I wonder if the bottle boy dreams of peace
Wishes for passage free from any scrutiny
Could he aimlessly wonder over hillsides
Trace historic footprints
And drink in fancy hotel lobbies?
The interpersonal informing the systemic
The local informing global
I am a stranger in this land


Taking snap shots in my mindI want to claim space here
Say my savior would see fit for a Christian presence
But space seems to Presious a commodity
To exert
I don't know what to do with the profound
The profane how to makes sense of it all
Learning and leaving
While you stay in soiled clothes blasting your horn so I
And you don't forget you are here and you are real


To the Palestinen children for whom home is unsafe and Live in poverty and inequality

lessons from Maya

Lessons from Maya

Own your story

Mother Maya wrote the pain down

So it didn’t  consume

Her

Turned hurt into passion

Anger into fire

That didn’t burn

But would push

Carry and convict with

A question or a poem

Queens shouldn’t run

From their stories

Hold them in the palm of

Our hands

Let them live and breathe

Squeeze and let go

Lest we be victims of

A world not meant for us

Not fair for us

We control what we do

With our lives

How we make them count

Give birth to the dreams

That

The world tries to beat

Out of bellies

Behold

Black woman brilliance

I would offer

You words

But you had so many

And you gave them

Freely

We don’t own language

We command it

Use it in service

To our people

Even though it has limits

I wish upon your star

That you knew

How bright you shined into my life

Just as you drove streetcars

Over streets

Danced to your own beat

Became queen

And poet

And the embodiment of

All about black womanhood

All that is complicated

All that is perfect

All that is worthwhile

And

All that is unknown

It is said that if a writer falls

In love with you

You can never die

And Maya

Our beautiful winged bird

Finally free

Will always FLY

for Renisha McBride

For Renisha McBride..

I hope your name makes noise

Speaks loud and bold

Brave and clear

For every name like yours

Your name the one

That they make fun of

Call ghetto

And say will never allow you to

Get a job

We want you to be the lip popping

Gum smacking

Goddess you are

Or the only one we will allow you to be

In our memory

The one that we suit wearing

Professional house ladies

Detest because you remind us

That even we are disposable in all our upward mobility glory

We want to remember your name

Make it mean more

Than bullets to the brain

And front porches

We want every black girl body

To carry weight

Speak volumes

Make noise

Be loud

We want it to be more than just a whisper

For once in history

We want to tell the story on

Our own terms

Share our pain

Our grief

Be more than footnotes in black male profiles

And end notes in white women sympathy

We want every syllable to

Choke the speaker’s throat

Take up more space than commonly

Allowed

Celebrate

Cry

Laugh

Be fully human

For once can we shame

Big Mama’s steady strength with

A moment of weakness?

Can we love ourselves?

Can we stop pretending?

Can we love each other

Enough to say enough?

Can we have a collective moment in space?

A time for us

A time for you

We are because you are..

Re-Nis-sha

Re- Nisha

ReNisha

r-ne-sh-a

I want to say your name so

I don’t forget my own

I want to say your name

So I can love my own

Not just another name

Not just another black girl body

Not just another girl child

Whose life isn’t worth anything?

To not only white men

But black men

And other black woman bodies

We have been taught our lives

Are disposable

So we don’t value each other

Let us call you name

Like children of the dusk

Calling for the sun

Let us call your name like

Stars calling for the moon

Like trying be whole

When you’re told your half

And I can’t seem to shake the feeling

That you need your name

Known for more

Than wide lips

And car accidents

For more than being on the wrong porch

For more than Detroit

You

Along with the others

Like

Sarah Bartman

Let us call your name

With those women

Who have been strange fruit

Jeenie Steers

Laura Nelson

Bertha Lowman

Mary Conley

Or ones who have died

Slow deaths on other trees

Like

Shirley Sherrod

Anita Hill

Rachel jeantel

Like

Mamie

Like

Welfare Queen

Like Baby Mama

Let us call your name

Renisha McBride

So we don’t forget our own

So we don’t choke

On our own voices

And think that

We are not already

Whole