(“Tomorrow’s Voices Today“ is a new series curated by poet and educator Mike Sonksen.)
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1
From people who traveled entire oceans wrapped around each other
To boxed culture
No vision, no taste, no pleasure, but color by man
Everyone became a brother
And the supermoon of colored-brothers came in yellow-red music
Because that was the only way he prayed to be treated like an equal type of human
2
The power of mercy
Authority to commute the punishment
A gesture of forgiveness
Pardoned people following conviction
Treated unfairly because of the reflection of his pigment
But his pigment was their figment
3
What seemed to be long term of a broken system
Reflection of the past went through the staggering brain
They stamped him as “born to lose”, but K-Pook?
He advanced in every American Apparel position
Age 45, worked day jobs for Bank of Ameri-KKK in East Hollywood
And ran a radio show on the side
4
Smiled while talking about the time when he could tell you what was going on in Los Angeles on any given day or night
But when daylight came shining through, only love had awakened
Hypocrisy killed the forsaken
But the forsaken were let free to get their candle light
And we still we hope to see the end of repetition 13th Amendment
5
Where freedom was passed
But it had always been ratified
6
The basket of the broken
Peeping from the very first sight
Leading to the very last strike
Patterns of color
Privileges scattered
7
A utopian ideal it seemed again
A vision so pure
Equality not revenge
8
Equality not revenge
9
Equality not revenge
10
STOP!
One day I’ll be free
Two day it seems we are
Three words is all it takes
Four me to be vulnerable
Five stars I see every night
Six senses all over
Seven seas of remedies that patch us up
Eight if I lay down, it becomes infinite
Nine bark of beautifully shed same skin
Ten years of no vision, no taste, no pleasure, but color by man