Good morning! I thought this morning I'd share a competition piece with y'all.
DISCLAIMER: This poem contains the N-word. But I know it bothers some people, so if you are one, you might want to skip this poem. (i see the there is an automatic editor... that's a good thing!)
If not, read on!
DISCLAIMER: This poem contains the N-word. But I know it bothers some people, so if you are one, you might want to skip this poem. (i see the there is an automatic editor... that's a good thing!)
If not, read on!
I AM
the atomic bomb of all insults
my name symbolizes intense hate and immense pride
i can cast an entire generation of men into hell
their memory keeps me alive
and no, you don't have to speak to me
or even say my name, cause baby--
i can read your mind
no one has seen more people take their last breath
or caused more living men to withhold it
my stare signifies a history of
stolen lies
stolen wives
stolen cries
made proud men hang their heads in shame
made some wallow in it
some rise from my ashes
and revel in it
others religiously invoke my name
most of them too stupid to use anything else
i am studied like a college major
or left to collect dust on some forgotten shelf
from the biggest and strongest men
to the richest and most powerful
i can't be touched, while
i'll allow 12-year old ghetto boys
to call on me all day long
those who created me now fear me
like an eternal wrong
some try to avoid me
others embrace what i stand for
some wish they could strangle me
captured like the enemy's flag
or cure me like an infected sore
a prisoner of war
a volatile situation
an explosive core
a powerful weapon
a beautiful song
a death sentence
a nuclear bomb
i am an identity
i am a religion
i am a history
i am a mission
i am a people
i am a sword
i am immaculate
i am a whore
from the most educated of men
to the drunk in the gutter
i am a nation left in the water
i am the devil
some call me "god"
cast out from Eden into Nod
an indication of guilt
a reason to kill
a convenient scapegoat
an excuse for "free will"
can't translate me, cause i have no equal
i am as ambiguous as the words "bad" and "sick"
the embodiment of evil
i am timeless, formless, and profoundly patriotic
i am a window into a people
i can be your mother or your father
one drop
keep me, i am yours
allow the absence of color to get near me
and even your president will know his racial place
the greatest leaders on earth
wouldn't dare touch my face
deny them my use
you will forever own the fire i wield
cause you hold the fuse
while they created me
you liberated me
found like the lost treasure
the measure of acceptance some men
will never obtain
it's internationally known
NOT to call my name
i am a sign
that the greatest nation on earth
created the most disgusting
reviled
filthiest
nastiest
and most unacceptable word ever heard
nothing can describe me
or the damage i've caused
i be the original Holocaust
can't erase my past
or clean me up
or whitewash my sons
if the mouth was a gun
then i be the trigger
i am the first American institution
the father of all mankind
the original civilization
but then they named me
******
“******”
the atomic bomb of all insults
my name symbolizes intense hate and immense pride
i can cast an entire generation of men into hell
their memory keeps me alive
and no, you don't have to speak to me
or even say my name, cause baby--
i can read your mind
no one has seen more people take their last breath
or caused more living men to withhold it
my stare signifies a history of
stolen lies
stolen wives
stolen cries
made proud men hang their heads in shame
made some wallow in it
some rise from my ashes
and revel in it
others religiously invoke my name
most of them too stupid to use anything else
i am studied like a college major
or left to collect dust on some forgotten shelf
from the biggest and strongest men
to the richest and most powerful
i can't be touched, while
i'll allow 12-year old ghetto boys
to call on me all day long
those who created me now fear me
like an eternal wrong
some try to avoid me
others embrace what i stand for
some wish they could strangle me
captured like the enemy's flag
or cure me like an infected sore
a prisoner of war
a volatile situation
an explosive core
a powerful weapon
a beautiful song
a death sentence
a nuclear bomb
i am an identity
i am a religion
i am a history
i am a mission
i am a people
i am a sword
i am immaculate
i am a whore
from the most educated of men
to the drunk in the gutter
i am a nation left in the water
i am the devil
some call me "god"
cast out from Eden into Nod
an indication of guilt
a reason to kill
a convenient scapegoat
an excuse for "free will"
can't translate me, cause i have no equal
i am as ambiguous as the words "bad" and "sick"
the embodiment of evil
i am timeless, formless, and profoundly patriotic
i am a window into a people
i can be your mother or your father
one drop
keep me, i am yours
allow the absence of color to get near me
and even your president will know his racial place
the greatest leaders on earth
wouldn't dare touch my face
deny them my use
you will forever own the fire i wield
cause you hold the fuse
while they created me
you liberated me
found like the lost treasure
the measure of acceptance some men
will never obtain
it's internationally known
NOT to call my name
i am a sign
that the greatest nation on earth
created the most disgusting
reviled
filthiest
nastiest
and most unacceptable word ever heard
nothing can describe me
or the damage i've caused
i be the original Holocaust
can't erase my past
or clean me up
or whitewash my sons
if the mouth was a gun
then i be the trigger
i am the first American institution
the father of all mankind
the original civilization
but then they named me
******
“******”