Menace

Trapped in my mind, just trying to find

the key to the door

on whatever floor

I feel so stagnant

the struggle clings to me like a magnet

I swear these days I about had it!

They selling us lies everywhere you turn

smiles on their face, yet inside they burn!

everybody just trying to come up

get they own paper and not give two fucks!

But what about love?

pushed it under the rug

feening for some drugs or anything that will get me up

to feel unstuck from an existence that fucking sucks!

Tired of being a slave to profit

they don't hear me.

Thinking what I say is a conspiracy

yet are they really hearing me?

We think we free but bear the heaviest shackles in our minds

fooled to believe that this is the way of our life,

that this is the way of our times!

Having to shuck and jive just to make ends meet.

We accept defeat, and walk with our heads down,

only lift it up, just enough, to survive

and they said

"Don't wear your hood like that, don't do all the things that your other friends do!"

"Why?"

"You're different! They see you as a menace! They're always out to get you! Live your life in fear!"

They say it's for my well-being, so I don't become the next hashtag.

I say fuck that shit!

I'll be damned if I bow down to anyone!

They'll see me for who I am!

A human!

who dares back down from their sovereignty

I wear what I want

I flow how I want

I speak with such defiance and passion, never to kneel before anyone, ever! again!

My mind has reached its limit

and I shall no more be colonized as my ancestors were!

I am the native brave who once walked the land in peace and harmony.

I am the African deity who was forcibly trapped and assimilated into a burning house!

I am that of an indigenous dancer, refusing to slow down the flow of my movement for anyone!

I am the lover who dares to show empathy and compassion in the face of such darkness!

My weapon in battle is none other than my craft

The way the words flow from me

they paint a picture

a picture of the motherland

Africa!

of where we all once knew as home

For they can beat me, try to fill my head up with perverse lies of my ancestry

yet they cannot stop the sun from rising to see another day

they cannot stop the passion in my spirit from rising at such heights of love and bliss

You see it's as simple as this

I pledge no allegiance to a forced identity!