|| part i: the dollar breaks ||
they out here shooting us like dogs / caging us like beasts - as though we’ve lost our fucking minds / well we have / but only after our necks have been hung and our heads bashed in / o n e b y o n e /
they scatter the masses / we have been given our rights structured in a system that uses them against us / fuck my right to speak / or teach / or carry / my own bastard babies / or a weapon that had an american right before i did / a system that only allows itself to be fed /
how many brown bodies can you eat? / for how many dollars will they sell? / me / i don’t deserve to live unless i continue to bear loads / and line their pockets / still tilling their mills, they’ve just managed to expand their lands to the cloud / dear heavens, there’s no way out /
and fuck me for not making more space to preach / for only half-filling small rooms of spirits when i speak / i want to soar and live a life just being / as beings should /i want to sleep well and not think of these education loans / these will work for healthcare frills / gotta pay these thank you bills /
for my paling-in-history academic persuasions / parables of crime, wars and resolutions / i want to speak to those that lived and died in the swell of tiny revolutions / let me know their stories / from their lips and hearts / learn me where real change starts / where things broken make usable parts / pieces for building and uplifting from within /
because we’re running out of time and people forget that everything we consume is food / everything you take in, it all becomes you / your tunes / your booze / your news / question the suppliers of your daily breads: a mood / network FOXes swift to spread fake facts / quick to runteldat / but no one admits that they killed Martin /
King Jr the Third and Trayvon / who will give light their memories / how do we make right their eulogies / there are no heavenly words for m u r d e r / or purger / which ones will survive the betrayal of the hits / the clicks /
the fast-news slinging bigots / sniffing out media meal tickets / i ask, again / how many brown bodies can you eat? / for how many dollars do we sell? / history books are written under / the authority of white lies / one-sided storylines leaked from the pens of white guys, l i a r s / lawmakers and enforcers, they been for hire / comfy, seated at the table / rubbing ‘bows with dope suppliers / how many ways can you break a dollar?
|| part ii:: break the dollar || put us in a petri corner watch us fester / not knowing who to call master only made things messier / in the know, make it known / but keep it low / when the clamor gets too loud / they gon’ b e h e a d the messenger /
canned goods / iffy water / reparations and a dream / check the books twice because money never flows the way it seems / tax paid authorities stay busy planting stories / psych us out with bits of freedom / a beady string of little glories / we be free to choose, to make a life / or so we thought /
they taught you need / so you could believe in the need to be taught / we’ve always been tied up / since birth our minds been caught / instead of how to fish / they show you where it could be bought / we spend our power in the billions / fuel the dollar with our parts / Black markets, broken hearted / we’re born into debt from the start /
stolen kidneys, pickney’s missing / whispers swinging in the summer breeze / forever sending warnings / they just no longer hang from the trees / propaganda so deceitful / boasting agendas, disguising reasons / only lesson worth learning is / it’s always hunting season / drowned us in the rivers / have faith, no need to swim / sold us our religions / and made white jesus on a whim / get lost in righteous prisms / anoint your head and catch Baptisms / the son, the father / the disciples / all the rulers / how many sheeple run the steeple? / run the world, can run the yard? /
but hold on the real gets deeper / they new crow lynching would-be leaders / who make cause for fuss and fight for us / cause for purpose worth pursuing / cannons booming for the youth dem / we must renaissance and / take stake our claim / leap bounds to own our own / and put respect on our names /
there’s movement in the ways we stand / by the privilege of our dealings / we work the collective visions / bubble elders in our veins and conjure up their premonitions / we must fight the frights / come in droves, be as one / in numbers dwells the might / we can energize the plight and give flight our rights / there are always ways to heighten heights / to ensure fo’ sho’ that we gon be alright / so, i ask again, how many ways can we break the dollar?
