Ethi-opium

we are smiling actors
shifty sources of truth's confinement
we were fucked and rarely cared about
screwed white to reshape us black

facing reality in each other we can't stand
we are tainted niggaz with naked minds
illiterati ripe for rituals of repetition
ethi-opium binding our bag of denials

will we ever be black so as to face our story
so that when booker t returns we might be surer
we deny the aberrations and return perverted
blind to history's suicidal solutions

niggaz seduced, our thinking done by others
we bleed green like virgins raped by our masters
the accumulated  wealth of our creative musings
turns blue with each song and struggle we muster

shooting blacks, our sad lives wallow in death
with a promise of chicken, we dance and sing alot
it's no shame since money's the name of the game
we'll make it through the next brother's fall

jesus is hooted yet many perish in his name
in our segregated parcels, our fragile integrations
church and state supposedly improve our lot
we are good jim crowist, lynching one another

and the niggaz who succeed, jealously slay one another
our minds being mined with minimal compensation
"git back, nigga, git back", we demand
"git back where you belong, nigga; get back"

our hatreds are covered 'neath sheets of sex
our slaughters continue with knives and words
our skin yet threatens both us and them
damage control brings out the national guard

we've been white so long that we can't be lost
with little improvements over forty years
so don't be surprised when you look down the street
and spot ghosts of the past rising up in view



*How do you tell Christ that he is Christ?  You don't.  You just consider the times you have been Christ yourself in the past and will be in the future.
-Marvin Barrett