This was eventually recited by me in front of everyone attending O.U.'s Poetry Slam. It is written in its current form in order to recite it correctly. It moves fast.
Stoning Red Walls White
You are not my voice. You don’t represent my choice.
You are far from the perspective of the moved
Only antiquated/ outdated posing a need to be removed.
By the time change finally comes from that façade of whitewalls
What good used to be in you, by the time it comes out
Is nothing but old battles whose soldiers are now on new routes.
The voice of reality is sneered at by a mentality
That would rather keep things the same
As they struggle for fame and blame
Others who are just like them
While not knowing they perpetuate the stem
Of our problems and battles our headaches as they channel
The money that segregates the minority of men who are often better than them
But who are never given the chance to be heard, seen, or led
Word on the street, there is a movement followed by millions of feet
Stepping with open eyes, fully realizing the power that lies
In their hands and has always been welling inside
And it’s out along with the multitude of lies
And now we are going to begin to belie
The power that strains us
The lives that seek to maintain this
Now the truth has hit us and we’re not going to shake this
We are a force that is sick
Of political tricks
And our voices are sticks
And we are going to whip
The life back into a nation that’s lost
Its focus/ concentrating
On their own self made dilemmas
Self deceiving agendas
If we will not stand by and watch our own children cry
How do we watch with dry eyes/ other children/ other nations die?
What/ for the promise that’s realized in our hoods, our streets, our lives?
Their grip on the cost of the lives that are tossed
Away as they prey on the needs we display
On the posters, the slogans, commercials they’re boasting
For fear that we’ll hear the solutions they’re toasting
With bigots and fakers and policy makers
That drink to our problems while purporting to solve them
Is as weak as their promise as their “equality” robs us
Of all ambition to change ‘em/ as those on top need a bottom
But we shirk from your lies/ we will now only cry
Not to you/ to ourselves/ hoping the institution will die
To enact the change that you’d rather shelf
We display our rage cause you ain’t no (F’n) help
Just statistics, ballistics of a weapon that shames
The democracy it says it maintains
As it points a weapon against
Those it purports to save.
If war ain’t the answer for our streets and our blocks
How can it be one for the whole nation/ just (F’n) stop
They pretend to be aware
As they always make an effort to remain the same
Big Lugs nam’n us thugs while they perfect the game
Their choices
Pernicious, malicious, back stabbing and vicious
While idealist dreamers
Stock the coffins with streamers
Of red/ white/ and blue
‘Cause they still think it’s true
That it cares
The institution that’s placed bodies there
Thinks it’s fair
To not share in the burden troops bare
Jokers and clowns stacking a deck that is bound
To their own fk’n failure
And the troops got to share it
What a shame/ the change
That happens to those
That were once sent to expose
The lies now they unfold
As they speak their hearts close
And their minds follow suit
Like a cheap computer that just won’t compute
We need to smash it and bash it
And throw it away
And replace it with ourselves
So that our voices will sway
Those who live like they above us
Strangling us with the same hands that hug us
Making body counts larger than their IQ
While shaping history with the views of the few
Ignoring all voices they can possibly suppress
Then getting angry with those who act like they’re upset
Are the people that sheep’ll run to follow
As they swallow whether tea spoon or big gulps of borrow
They sell their souls for possessions they lose
Giving over control/ their behavior excused
By the same makers of commercials that only give gain
To the makers of the products that shame/ kill for/ sustain
The perpetual cycle of fistfuls of dough/blow/ and show
For those same people that stone red walls white and they know
That it grows/ large enough to make us think we can’t change it
But it all comes down to solidarity/ times are calling for us to bring it
The movements waiting for you/ it’s time to begin
We can huff and puff and blow that Whitehouse in
Time to stop the same arms that choose to build empire with blood
And attempt to fix our economies with cheaper labor and guns
Instead of education that would increase the safety of our streets
They give whatever maintains ‘n sustains the power of the elites
We are aware of those Whitehouse walls
That seek to block our voices from your off limit halls
In your courtrooms/ your ballrooms
While assistants assist in your bedrooms
While some need bread you’re receiving head
And as you gush/ I hope you blush
Cause that same red/ the color of your power
Will see you dead
As you yourself flower into tumbling towers
There will be no remorse as the innocent take power
Away from you and all like you
You can all rot in hell if it’d (f'n) take you
As we look for our prophet
You seek only what you can profit
By anything resembling a cure
For harsh streets/ vulgar beats/ as long as you get another tour
In that Whitehouse/ that stained blouse/ switching hands/ suppressing righteous shouts
As it clouts and struts about
Principles that only the rich see
As the poor lower class victims be
Straining their necks and lives pursuing to see
And only get bat beat/ tazered treats/ hard lives these principles keep
Time for less change and more revolution
Time to hit our marks/ begin the execution
The gentleman who inspired me to write this ended up liking it so much he wanted me to recite it in front of his friends. On a street corner in the middle of an uncomfortable neighborhood in Detroit in front of about 20 people, I recited this. I was careful to tell them that there was a lot of "metaphor" and "symbolism" in it and that I didn't condone violence. (They just smiled and afterward cheered)
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Thank you very much Kimberly. I appreciate the feedback. :)
Posted by: Bryan Scott Thomas | 01/24/2011 at 08:06 AM
This was very poerful to read as I read it I could picture everything that you wrote down as if it was a short film. You do great work, I'm proud to know you!
Posted by: Titikim31 | 01/24/2011 at 06:36 AM