#jp-poetry

[jp-poetry]

Mother Tongues

The colonialists voracious ways Have stolen from me my mother tongues They’ve replaced them with foreign words Painted the colors of their flag And put me in a corner called Patriotism

In america I speak english I am told to assimilate and be content in a country that decidedly hates my skin And for sure hates my ancestry beyond our assets So to impress I say I speak french But to get work I put creole on my resume So i can say “buy this product, black body” Cause I’ve assimilated their money

To impress, I stress, and say I speak french With bloodied tongue, I stress to roll their R’s Yet you receive my words with closed eyes Like they closed the eyes of my ancestors When they threw them in mass graves Their genocide gave me thes honeyed words That we took from them and made our own

Ayiti cheri, The first freed slave nation We drove away the white invadors Swept clean the soil they stained Red with the blood if innocents in hatred But still were left with their legacy With our anthem defiled by their tongue And our psyched restrained by their fist We struggle still to this day

We do not know our mother tongues For from home, they took us away We do not know our distant histories For this too they stole from us But Olorun has blessed us  And made our roots profound and strong 

Even in our lack of certain clarity Our eyes still see the light They took from us and sought to destroy Yet we build up nonetheless Mothers tongues and blood be lost But we are a strong people With our roots set so deep Our faith and trust can’t be shaken

Ase Diaspora

[jp-poetry]

Unseen and Unheard

We have made of my daily life a checklist Like a train conductor with a pen and paper We tick off cars of trains on tracks Or like lemmings at the edge of a cliff We whittle down and count one by one

First we wake ourselves up For most the simplest task of the day For even unwanted, day still come But for us, a task unsurmountable For being awake means at best  Feeling a numbness deep in our bones

Step two, we must brush our teeth the jagged bones that protrude Are harder to maintain  than the most finely tune of engines But cleanliness is close to godliness So I guess that makes us the devil

If we can manage to feed Then better yet for us and ours For the taste of sawdust has yet To clear it’s stain from our tongues Like unwanted life elixer we stomach all we can for one more day 

Every single task broken to it’s base element If we finish part one, the sequel is so much better going downhill is supposed to bring momentum but gravity’s friction pushes us to a stop that is the hurdle we must surmount And I say we, for I never alone and just me

The last time I was alone was some years ago Depression moved in and made a home in my bones Like the bad roommate, it has wrecked my abode It’s celebrations to the dead of night cast the first stones So as I’ve said before I am never alone Since it’s latched on and made itself inexcisable

The best I can do is hope for salvation Ignore my sources of unseen friction Work around the issues with a fixed devotion Develop a compromise with deadly frustration  And last but not least, come to a sad realization I have a disease...

It is unseen and unheard Silent as the tumors impetuous growth As invisible as the hearts palpitation With less cures than H.I.V And even less campaigns than A.L.S It takes life as sure as a bullet And the stigma does it with even less

So Yes, I have made of my daily life a checklist I count off each task like 1,2,3 I’ll be the first to say depression wont leave me But I’ll be damned if I let it beat me

So if you struggle as I sometimes do, don’t give up Start by calling 1800-273-8255

[jp-poetry]

Book cover is done. Three more days, and then it’s out. be ready friends!!!!!

[jp-poetry]

Getting ready to go perform tonight

[jp-poetry]

To my dearest sister, By @jp-poetry

[jp-poetry]

2/05

the faint tastes of her lips still on my tongue my glasses shifted on my face  And a cigarette plastered to my lips I ride down this road with the wind in my face

the night is dark as pitch  lit only by the amber street lights glow and I arrive at stop sign Then I black out

My body remembers the turbulence As the car flips from the ground  I never really can recall the overbalance at least not in conscious memory

when my eyes open there are lights I hear my name as though through water being told to climb out the back window I don’t know where I am, but it’s numb

I am told to sit on the side of the road for this simple mercy I am grateful For if I try to stand a moment longer my knees will surely buckle

I black out again

A state of shock so complete  Even the FST is a blur I wanna scream that this isn’t the time I wanna feel something more than scared

A year goes by

Do this do that you cant ever let up And you cant go back

I have loved and lost mainly a lot of money but I have also gained and the best gift of all was perspective honey

I had taken life for granted this is true, this I know But now I have my words again And I have lived better than so long ago

It has been a year My mistake has haunted me  but even in this darkness nothing has ever daunted me

I have not shed more than a croc’s set of tears for no misery at all in these twelve months Then it suddenly hits me I has been a whole one year

So I sit outside, with a cigarette on my lips. My glasses stand firm upon my face. The air is muggy, and bugs fly roughly through air made of molasses. I look up to the sky and feel the wrench in my heart. On this day again, tears of triumph flow freely. 

[jp-poetry]

This Night Above All

As soft sleep made its way You curled up next to me Our bodies held together by simple String And your breath the only song worth hearing

Your body filled up with yearning As my tumescnece stood on end As if in salute to Exu  Bessed I be in his fertility Hand kissed flesh grew warm And our dance filled with pleasure Touched upon your salivations Your susurrations my only salvation As if Felurian of Fae stood in room Who could deny their desires Like entirely in trance I beheld Soft moonglow alight on softer flesh We shall never again speak of this day For as dreams break upon awaking So too this spell might Disolve If only to deny us the speaking

So I jealously guard this night In pretense of it complete non-existence But in hidden view of mind I recall The moonglow, the breath, and this night above all

[jp-poetry]

We Go Together

You and me, we go together Like one and one makes three Like Fries and shakes taste delicious Like sun and blue skies mean rain Like Inmates and the chair are best buds

We go together like  Pouring water into my gastank Or dropping your phone in water  Like an airplane with one wing Or a tug boat with no rudder We go together like Salt poured long in my coffee Like ipecac on cigarette butts Like and alcoholic at a bar Like two cars in a wreck

We slip and slide around eachother Touching for the briefest moments But in these moments there’s fire Like raging embers to crack the coals I don’t know if it will breathe life to embers

So we slow down, almost to a trickle We let emotions unveil us Only at our darkest hours When we drink enough to forget That none of this makes sense

Logic is our biggest barrier We hide behind a word so small And because I know the power of words I adhere to it as a life raft If I let go, I’m swept in a world of emotions

Three little syllables to scare A word so powerful, I cannot look upon Nor even begin to understand As such I can only fear what I don’t know Precursor to a one syllable word

So yes, we go together Like broken line of binary That cause the robot’s neck to shock Like the put together pieces  of Frankenstein's monster child

We go together like the many nights we’ve shared Like the day spen in the rain Like the truest friend you are

But all the same,  I’ll let you chose where we go from here.