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Poems

by Tamara Palms

The SlautherHouse

 Bred to feed, only allowed to breath for another’s need.

 Why do you struggle so hard to leave?

 Leave this place that can so easily be replaced

  Leave the place that kept you in a cage,

 Why do you struggle?

 

 Let it go.

 Slip into the peace of the unknown.

 

 But, no you fight

 You fight to show your worth

 They fire to show their girth

 You believe you have a place in this world

 You believe in rights and wrong

 And that sooner or later they’ll come along

 They don’t

 They just pull the trigger twice



 


Star Stained Banner

A rendition of the Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you hear,

Through the fields by early light,

The forgotten footsteps we assailed,

For only selfish, capitalistic reasons?

Whose broad stripes and bright scars,

Waded through the white man’s fight,

O'er the ramparts Master watched,

Was so gallantly gleaming.

And the rifles quick snares,

Police battons bursting in air,

Give proof through the night,

That our sins are still here.

Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave,

Full of unreconciled stains

For the land of the white master, and the fields of the black slave

Here they lie, here they stay


 



The Token Black

A token for your thoughts, a token for your efforts,

But, no longer will they be needed. 

I’m afraid to say, that The Token Black will no longer be an acceptable form of payment. 

 

I know that this may cause some dismay, 

But there is a bright side to doing things this way. 

 

You can keep your Darnell’s at home, and Javon’s locked away. 

No longer must you claim February as your favorite month

Or pretend you have a clue about the meaning of that crazy Erykah Badu.

The days of dangling trivial black culture in your pockets are through.

 

But, even though the Token Black may not be accepted

Appropriation can still be as easy as expected. 

Forms of payment? That’s easy. 

Just pay us with that bill; that represents us. 

 

Oh dear, there isn’t a bill

What about that Harriet Tubman bill?

That wasn’t a done deal?

 

Well that’s too bad

The Token Black is no longer accepted. 

The Dollar Black is now expected.