Black Poetry : I was pickin' My Afro

blakverb

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Mar 19, 2001
2,627
33
I left the house the other day
on a search to find me the perfect pick to
pick the perfect 'fro on the perfect day
for my natural mind ya know

I got to the Walgreens doen there
on this street and that street and checked aisle
number 7
I pondered over the "fist on the end" one
and the black plastic one with the red and black
swing handle
and the "cake cutter" one
(ya'll know the one with the teeth that cut
yo' scalp if you got to "into" picking yo' hair)
and the one that "fanned out like a rake"
thay even had a pink one with wide teeth
...like that's gone help on a nappy head...

I looked them over, stood in awe
by the tools we all need to have in our ghetto tool
box and drooled licking my lips like I was
gazing at naked Jet beauties
them picks...simply beautiful... after tripping one
minute too long I got the one with the
fist cause when stuck in your 'fro

planted on one side
planted in the back
or even slid in your back pocket

that fist said "I ain't taking no ****"
and "power be to the people"
(it even gave a brother a lil limp
in his stride)

when I got home I ran to the mirror
dabbed some "green" blue magic in my doo
and proceeded...it was wild because my
doo caught all these different things while walking
through the hood...a social dreamcatcher

I picked and inhumanity
and "in hue" man ity feel to the floor
I said "hey brother what's up"
after rubbing his head he said
"******, why you step on my shoe"
I perplexed why this dude was vexed
said out of a matter of respect said "yo'
bro you just fell out MY doo, not some
night club" after explaining that he was
high after 2 blunts and a crooked i
i understood why he was in my doo

I picked out insanity and vanity rolled into
one as a prostitute with a gat feel out
and landed on her back she pointed it
at me I said "yo, what's up wit dat?"
I ain't the john that just ripped you off
or your pimp that just slapped you, but queen why
do you do what you do? after uncocking her
pearl handle six shooter she said she
was raped at age twelve, got pregnant at age 14,
and kicked out at age fifteen, daddy been dead
at least that's what her mama said, and needed to
get a roof, food and a bed. I said "****".
i understood why she was in my doo.

I picked ignorance out and out fell a cop, klansmen,
and a politician. i told both those cats ya'll definitely
in the wrong spot, but , while ya hear let me holla
at ya for a minute...after cracking my digits I began
how can you praise God and burn crosses?Then in an
incendiary tone I burned them both when I said
"and Yo' son you up in my crib being wack, trying to
pop my collar cause you assume I sell dope to make a
dollar mutha****as I'm an educated street scholar
did you know that Adam and eve and jesus were
black? that the first man and woman on this earth
were black? that makes me yo' daddy. where's my belt"
those cats thought my *** was crazy as a bedbug
and jumped twenty stories to their...hey I didn't push
'em.

I picked out strength, single mother with three kids
who swore she was cursed by doing a bid of stress,
strife and struggle handed down by the God. said she
can't make it, didn't want no more days like this
I told her think back, reminesce your breaths were songs
for oceanic fish they danced to your strength your hope
and even the wisdom of your fears, they still listening even
after hundreds of years. So close your eyes and draw on your
own strength you ain't alone, all you have to do is call
big daddy is always home. she left kids in tow and now I
know why she was in my doo...

to get me to understand that I am from something
greater than all ignorance born of man the home of the
afro where my Soul roams.

(and my 'fro ended up smoooooooth too)

(c)2001 blakverb
 
so you have seen my Afro pick

the one with the fist
and **** right I use
that blue magic to grease
this scalp and I be
combin my napps
watchin in amazement
at what falls out
my Afro natural self
dreamcather fo sho
cause every time I
"big pick it" somebody
say I remember when we
wore fro's it was a statement
now yall younguns wear them
for fashion.... and as I sat down
with this older cat and explained
to him My Nappy Transition
and the Messages From my Afro
his eyes grew wide cause I had pulled
him inside of my struggle.... a black woman
once straight (hair that is) in a work place
dominated by old white men and my quest to seek
me, to be me, to go back to my naptural beauty
to shake societies misCONception of how I'm
supposed to be
and that older cat said yeah my sista
I can dig it
gave me mad props cause I
opened his eyes to a struggle he thought
long lost

verb, you have captured so many things that I want to say. I sit with my mouth open cause the title alone was all that. Like Mos Def said it's amazing how scribes/poets/spoken word artists can flow exactly what you wanna say and do it a way that got you sayin ****




One
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top