July Fourth Isn't Worth Admiration
Heavy ideas
Heavy whispers
Heavy dreams
Heavy movements
behind closed doors
They use creed
They use belief
They use country
They use Patriotism
They use law as a method
of violence
A Black student
from Schenectady says
CRT is good religion
and PWI’s don't serve
Black and Brown students
You feel me?
July Fourth Isn't Worth Admiration
isn't worth the time
isn't worth backyard barbecues
isn't worth trips to the beach
to hang out with yuppies
celebrating their SUVs
401ks and vacation packages
isn't worth firing up the grill
Too many people struggle
for that milk and honey bro
Tunde says as he sits
down at a large business-like
desk and cracks open a book
in the middle of the night
I say You don’t feel
like a shining Black Eagle
tattooed with love
and goodness and built
for resistance?
July Fourth Isn't Worth Admiration
Bluesy people don't admire
funky attitudes or pigs that don't fly straight
or Liberty's muddy
interpretation of Freedom
SCOTUS strikes down Affirmative Action
for Black and Brown students
while upholding a Jim Crow version
of it for wealthy
and privileged students
whose parents' names
appear on buildings
I sip my scalding brew
from an old school
coffee pot—
keeping it Black
with a hint of Stevia
like Fela Kuti rebelling
against colonial agendas
corruption
state controlled media
and police brutality
Around here I refuse
to worship manipulated holidays
or observances for old days
for old wars
for the glorification
of old histories
or beefs against
Big Bad Britain
1776
shucks and jives
snaps its fingers
getting busy in tap shoes
and waits for the applause
while I crack chains and shackles
evolve into God's image
the people's image
cleansing my body
of American mythology—
a tattooed impurity
refusing to let my skin
absorb sunlight
Map out the maze
and get that money
Daddy said
Defend yourself at all times
Mama said
July Fourth Isn't Worth Admiration
July Fourth Isn't Worth Admiration
July
Fourth
Isn't
Worth
MY
Admiration
I continue to stir history
in a cast iron pot
adapting wheels
to hot terrain
allowing Juneteenth to appear
on my forehead
like a Tribal marking
like a Beautiful reminder
like a Beautiful scar