Weez Here
We shook the southern dust from our feet for the last time,
By foot, mule, train or truck,
Dixie is at our back and a new day is ahead,
Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York,
We finally made it!
Weez here!
Thank the Lord,
Weez here.
But it don’t feel the same;
All that we’ve ever known is gone,
The warmth of familiar relations,
Sustenance across wide open fields
That swallows the evening sun into the lower forty,
The smell of the wood burning stove
Gone,
Doesn’t seem quite real just yet,
But, weez here.
Honking horns and loud machines
So many people and so many streets,
Look at all these cars,
Skyscrapers blocking the sun,
Storefront church right next to the bar
Lawd have mercy,
Shoe shine boy asking for a dime,
Evangelist warns us the end of time is near
Undertaker on the ground floor,
Doctor’s office upstairs
Citified folk walk and talk so fast
And always seem to be in such a hurry
I wonder where they going?
It’s hard to understand what to do next,
Hard to understand how.
Every door is shut tight,
Until we get to the Belt, The Bottom, or Uptown
With no more to offer than cold water flats,
Kitchenettes or second floor back
But it beats the plantation shack,
And weez here.
Yeah, weez here and it hurts,
We’re put to shame by our own people
Calling us simpleminded and backward,
White folks act like they’re afraid and only speak
When the rent is due or when they’re looking for a nurse, a butler or a maid.
We traded bo-weevils for roaches,
The outhouse for a stopped up toilet,
We traded the farm fresh air
For the funk of a rundown building
And a tower of stairs
But,
weez here.
Slowly lynched,
Packed up on top of one another
Fussin,
Expired tempers pouring blood into the street
Slowly dying,
Loosing our grip on this thing called hope
Fighting,
Just to breathe our own air.
We patch together parts of down home that we miss the most;
Our music and food, our song and dance with the best of folks who share and enjoy in what we are longing for
Then, it’s back to,
The Madam’s kitchen,
Mister’s factory
Master’s clean up boy,
But weez here,
Yes, thank you Lawd,
Weez here.
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