Nigger

I could almost
Taste
The word
Before it grew
From your lips
Like so much
Strange fruit

Made my mouth water

Yea, I’ve tasted
That bitterness before

On Southern plantations
And Northern courts

Well, you know where
You know why
I’m sure you
Already know
The story

Written in blood
Upon this
Nation’s subconscious

You define me
You put me
In a category
Not of my choosing

That word
Leaving your mouth
My prison
My class

My hoody
My hair
My music
My ass

My step and
My bop
My rhythm
My sass

My streets
My knowledge
My saxophone jazz

My rock and
My roll
My pants and
Their sag

My peoples
My hood
My niggas
My fam

So thank you
I said
Thanks for
Putting and
Keeping me in
My place
Right here
Where I belong

Nigger
Black
Fear Me
Like night
Fear Me
Like death

If that’s
What helps
You sleep

I’m all about
Helping out
Masta sah

Time ticks in between the cracks
Of my thoughts each second
Silent like dark, like the corpse
Of a man who had lived and
Had died lived the course
Of a life that he loved
But the love wandered lost
He was dark she was light
And their love traveled forth
Into Heaven into Hell like
A nihilistic force…

She broke the silence with
A withering look
Towards her father’s stern gaze

She leaned close and
Kissed me full on these lips
And I in a daze felt the pot melt away

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