the dead can't speak
for themselves
so, i'll speak for
me
if one thing don't kill
you
something else will
that's why i don't stress
when i walk the streets now
no matter how you live your life
people are gonna hate
no matter who i love
people are gonna hate
no matter what i write
people are gonna hate
live like a thug
die like a thug
haters are gonna hate
i could wear a three piece suit
and get looked at
no differently
than if i wore
hoodies, jeans and sneakers
another black male
is swept under the rug
another dead nigger
to you
i once heard a black woman
in a coffeehouse telling
her white girlfriend
if their were more
black men of quality
she would date them
she said, she didn't date
white guys by choice
she considered herself
"selectively lesbian"
and only chose to be
straight
if a guy was worthy
rap videos brag about
how to murder someone
we talk without talking
by text message
snooki from the tv show
jersey shore gets a book deal
even as she admitted
she only read two books
in her life
(dr. seuss must've been a challenge)
and eminem brags that it's cool to be stupid
if most black males aren't
pulling the trigger of a gun
they'll be looking down the barrel
of one
and it's no different for black men
in 2012, then it was in 1912
you walk the streets with a target
on your back
trayvon martin replaces emmett till
as the poster child
for america's hate
in obama's post racial
america
but we all know racism
doesn't exist anymore !
we "we are the worlded it"
and "kum bay yaahed" it into
oblivion years ago...
but the more things change
they more people fall victim
to cliches
and a cliche is a cliche
because it's true
but why should i write another
race poem?
it doesn't exist...
Erren Geraud Kelly is a poet based in New York City, by way of Louisiana, by way of Maine, by way of California and so on. He has been writing for twenty-one years and has over three dozen publications in print and online in such publications as Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, and PoetryMagazine.com. His most recent publication was in In Our Own Words, a Generation X poetry anthology. He received a B.A. in English-Creative Writing from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
_____________________________________________________