2.
So your mom stands on his
blackness with taller heels
And warns you that your granddad
will disown you
If you spring off a black baby,
And your dad will kill you
For calling him friend.
What can I say to you, Kelly?
You are a child, battered by
bigotry:
You are staring in the face of a
monster
That will eat your heart and
spit out the love,
If you don't stare it down.
You are walking into a wall that
is harder to tear down
Than the one in Berlin,
You'd better start chipping away
now.
You are caught in a vice that
will squeeze out
Your mind and leave you an empty
skull,
It you don't push back.
You are sinking farther out at
sea than the Titanic
And without a lifeboat,
You'd better become a tireless
swimmer.
You are chained to a stake whose
root
Shoots out the other side of the
earth,
Better learn to see visions in
the dirt.
You and your dad are not one;
You and your mom are not one.
They have split their souls into
hate-fragments.
They cannot know love
As long as gravel bitterness
rattles in their hearts.
One foot is out the door
Waiting for the other to follow:
Even if your heart has to bed
down on the porch,
See that your mind escapes that
prison house