This is to be understood …

I retain my identity,

don’t speak, of infidelity,

I started this saga without surety,

I’maa finish without security,

because it’s not what I don’t have or can’t give,

it’s about how I survive and live,

it’s about they, turning their saturated eyes in our direction

in an unspoken plea, that’s the misunderstood inflection,

while our tearless eyes convey a narrow mind,

not a finger is lifted to help our kind.

This is to be understood …

Look at her, name is inconsequential,

race is not essential,

children got potential,

brutality not sequential,

food not exponential,

money influential,

clean water consequential,

education preferential,

there is nothing non-essential,

because this is the poetry in her eyes,

it’s made of substance called ‘no lies’.

This is to be understood …

As a child,

she never heard of childhood,

she was introduced to ‘labourhood’,

welcome to the neighbourhood,

holla at her father yo,

smile at her mother yo,

or what’s left of them to ‘display’ for show,

because ‘X’ doesn’t even mark the spot of death you know,

one murdered in this civil war,

one raped and tortured amongst the gore,

and that’s how this child was left to live in the ‘hood’,

this ain’t no fairytale where the ending’s “s’all good”.

This is to be understood …

maybe she had younger brother,

forced herself to be the mother,

telling him it’ll be alright one day,

telling him someone’s got to pay,

telling him to have faith in god and pray,

all in an effort to have him live for one more day,

to make “s’all good” the theme someday,

to make ‘hope’ the comfort for today.

This is to be understood …

now she’s an adult,

holla at her brother yo,

he disappeared awhile ago,

white van kidnapped and took him away,

that’s it for him, that’s what they say,

living in this accursed place,

wiping at her tear-stained face,

trying to prove, her human race,

dripping all the blood to trace,

got no court to make a case,

got to keep up her survival pace,

because this is called the ‘Amazing chase’,

where death is death, it’s a master ace.

This is to be understood …

that’s one page in this book,

no one strong enough to take a look,

I tell the tale,

this is no sale,

it’s truth without details,

it’s emotion,

her tears are like an ocean,

a result of all the commotion,

ignornance of the horror promotion,

human status demotion,

no one got a notion,

of all that is going on.

This is to be understood …

Smiling don’t deceive us,

why won’t you receive us,

why won’t you just leave us,

why do you aggrieve us,

I’m human, please believe us,

what’ve I done, reprieve us,

I steal, and I work where I can to relieve us,

I’m like this because dead are those who conceived us,

I’m crying, god free us ..

… and that’s her internal poetry.

This is to be understood …