Maintenance Mode
We Know #melanafroindiaboripoly (Poem by Stephen A. Dantes)
In the black and indigenous communities
we know
Straight hair or coarse,
broken in or broken out
we know
Infinite shades of melanated decrees
we know.
We know
the unspoken horrors,
the terrors innumerable in years,
the stagnant wells -
the tears that irrigated the coffers,
the pilfer - an audacious display of privilege
museums of the anaemic rite
we know.
We know
as we are the offsprings of the whip
the bastards of royal civility
blackbirded, blacklisted, blackmailed, blackballed then blackfaced
We are anagrams of our shadow selves,
unworthy of our weight in gold,
and unable to pull our wait in the world
but perfect mules to work the acres stolen
til aches, hers swollen
to give of and give up,
to receive none,
but a promise of they to save us
as promises arrest the rest of us
to rest a rest until the left of us forget
or die with their secrets.
We are the child-friendly versions of our parents’ nightmares,
the real life equivalence of the Midas touch
as ALL economies today stand proudly on our backs
still unbroken, unbent, unbeholden.
But we know,
that their God shall judge them for judging us
We know.