from the monitor to your mind, burning ghosts you deny
knowing. we can no longer celebrate your ancestors’
actions taken as divine liberty on coal dark bodies.
a vision is rollin ‘round in my head and we need
to talk about it. it’s been 55 years this time ‘round
I’ll take cash for da mule and 40 acres in New Jersey.
you woke this morning knowing yourself to be outta synch
with the universe after crouching in the dark, note taking
while draped comfortably in your usual cultural silences
that have kept you warm for so many centuries.
whenever we meet, you ain’t gonna get no sleep.
we the people you thought you could leave behind
we the people demanding to abolish your state of mind.
words trip up your tongue as you are forced to review the texts
of future pages of required reading correctly labeled as truths
about sleepless spirits deprived of life, liberties, pursuits, happiness.
the words terrible, terror, torture, trauma rise up for a proper burial.
of emails demanding decolonization outside of yourself does not
resurrect them. whenever we meet, you ain’t gonna get no
sleep. a vision is rollin ‘round in our heads and we need to talk
as sci-fi morphs into non-fiction in the streets, our bones tell us
we can’t wait. we have prepared a seat at the table for you, this is
not an invitation to amnesia. your world where seeing defies believing
is crumbling. it’s our morning, we are in labor, more babies are coming.
it, cause when we meet, you ain’t gonna get no sleep.
