Thursday, December 18, 2014

Get me off the grid...

This box, solid like a wooden coffin some days
suffocating me
make a salary
do, do, achieve, and earn
no premium put on how we learn
no, just like a bounty held over my head
I can't get ahead
slidin' back like a baby tryin' to get up that slide
on the wrong not-the-ladder-side
I've seen the ladder from afar
As other people either climb nimbly from one rung
to another, or as I spot her there perched on top -
look closer
she's ingested a man's conditioned response and regurgitates
hardened to the humanity
of the reality
of a woman's work
Work, feed, clothe, house, decorate, earn, learn, pay,
educate, nurture, dig deeper into the well
surrounded by the four walls constructed by men
So weary of these air-tight walls
I can't breathe
said Eric Garner, over and over again in that video
that I wished I hadn't clicked on
to watch those men pounce on
closing in, constricting his airways
choking the death out of him as his life force had already
faded
He faded by their hand
Our humanity, my humanity
Is fading
By their invisible hands holding up the walls visible to the
invisible men and women of this country
And countless corners of the world that have been touched
by those hands
I want off the grid, out of the walls of
Earn to live, (y)earn to be respected, look and sound a certain way
to be acknowledged as a fellow be-ing
We're so busy do-ing that we have forgotten each other
Can't even see each other
Until we remember not to forget our selves and get on
the path to go closer, forge deeper... into the well
where walls don't exist.

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