When the wound is fresh it cannot heal it cannot heal it cannot heal
Wounds untreated infect and kill infect and kill infect and kill
#FreePalestine #FreeSudan #FreeAmerica #FreeTheWorld #InjusticeAnywhereIsAThreatToJusticeEverywhere
When the wound is fresh it cannot heal it cannot heal it cannot heal
Wounds untreated infect and kill infect and kill infect and kill
#FreePalestine #FreeSudan #FreeAmerica #FreeTheWorld #InjusticeAnywhereIsAThreatToJusticeEverywhere
Oh, what a joy to learn of a king who affirmed the poor in a world given to greed
A prophet who discerned piety in the baggage of brothels
A man of God who foresaw for-profit prisons in the pretense of the pious
A testament of a God who loved the unloved so much that same God assumed indigenous flesh, making it holy
An indigenous man who has been killed, although unarmed, by the people he so loved.
Copyright 2024 Rakeem Person. All rights reserved.
Auspicious skies beam upon us
For we loved and were loved in kind
A shiver rumbles holy ground beneath sandals
We remove our shoes
Behold a stubborn gate
haloed silver like grandpa’s eyes
A dove’s voice nests in our ears
As we hold hands before a knowing God
Come as you are, come as you are
Or do not come at all
Sings a chorus of a dozen doves
I am as I am, we said in time
To the parting of heavy hands
Come as you are, come as you are
Or do not come said a knowing God
We are as we are, we said in time
To the joining of heavy hands
The doves reprised their chorus
We share a glance
As we had shared a soul
Gaining strength,
we remove our clothes
Rejoining hands
Copyright 2024 Rakeem Person. All rights reserved.
1. Still Colorful
You’re a cumulus cloud calmly
awaiting your crown of rainbow.
Marvelous as a tornado swirling
atop a caterpillar’s schemes.
You coalesce a sky that doesn’t
bow to your every whim.
The earth withstands rain.
Cry your crown of colored dreams.
It’s your time.
2. Still Divine
As you stand still, faith
weighs like a gentile giant.
When you take a step it forces
footprints in the sidewalk.
You’re crumbling concrete
to get to where you’re going.
That’s what it means to be God’s kin.
3. Still Slaying (Giants)
You are the rock hurled
from the slingshot
of a child of God.
Slaying Goliaths
for the tribes yet to rise.
Entering warzones
armed with sticks and stones
Hurling hope.
4. Still Needed
Welcome this poem
as the forehead kiss
your father forgot
on a night needed most
Smile that smile
that coaxes tears
from the first man
you’ve loved.
Like that kiss, you
are still needed.
5. Still Eden (Remember)
Your intent to grow
inspired God
to plant seeds
into ready soil
to reap the forests
fixed by your roots
over time…
My wings would be a mosaic
made of black mothers’ pride
They’d be boomboxes for justice
Amplifying the riot in our souls
They’d be instruments
Of destruction
Burning monuments to make room for equal testaments
They’d evolve into the freedom to live unaccosted and to die avenged
They’d be bullet proof
and resistant to hate
They’d span from the Middle Passage to Miami
They’d lift our heavy hearts
and their downward thrust
Would scatter the white ashes
of false supremacy
~Rahk
I just want to go for a swiiiimmmm
After a bath in the sun
Mango Wheat Orange Moon
Wide palms praising the One
Who knows the count of the sand
& cowrote my Mama’s Gun
Booming Bluetooth speaker
Conversating on . . . & on
As the sweat drop-glistens
Orange Moon drops   gone
Seashells beneath brown feet
Seagulls eyeing my phone
Wooooosh, a flirty breeze
Guides us to the shore
Woooooo this ocean’s crisp
Won’t be sweating no more
A tight hug to the sea
Ain’t no stress to report
Oh wait, ’tis the season for Covid
& The Cost of Living’s the resort
~Rahk.
Shout out to my art ma [in my head] Erykah Badu.
1.
You say you love me
(For the Bible tells you so)
You say you love me
(For you are a child of God)
You insist you love me
But your love hits like hurled stones
But your love stabs sole of foot
It’s hard to walk
It hurts to walk
When your love vehemently rejects my shared need to breathe
2.
Such a peculiar love to offer sour fruit to starving children
Then stand repulsed, willfully withholding aid, when their bodies inevitably protest
How have you not choked on all the dust your love collects?
~Rahk.