So a black man is president

click here to hear this poem performed & produced by DubbleX

We hold these truth's to be self-evident
When they wrote the constitution a black man could make no contribution
After the Emancipation Proclamation
We were still the problem and not the solution
Legally declared 3/5ths of a man
only good for a slave hand
There were only whites in the white house
now a black man his kids and his spouse
I wonder what Jefferson Washington and Lincoln would think
Would they toast him with a drink or think the country will sink
We’re already on the brink of another great depression
Our recession is now in session
Mr. Obama will you help me to get my reparations from this nation
My 40 acres and a mule or am I just a naïve fool
Because this country is still cruel
We've come a long way from slave ship days
From cotton picking plantation ways
From strange fruit hanging high above tree roots
From Jim Crow laws to masters whipping slaves backs bloody raw
The atrocities this country claims it never saw
slaves to servants to president
But aren’t you half white and all of us blacks are any color but black - different shades brown from all the raping and mixing gone around
come a long way since lynching in 1868 back in slave and free states
Still suffer from hate crimes in 2009
From bus boycotts to riots in Watts
To Medgar Evers and Malcolm getting shot
Now we all looking up to you standing on the top spot
The Japanese during World War II got their dues so did some Jews
So I just wonder if it could be true that you could come through
For all my ancestors in 400 years of oppression deservers some type of compensation
I know you will be busy trying to clean up 8 years of republican misery
Try to mend our relations with other nations getting our soldiers out of Iraq
Bringing our boys back
The banking crisis and the economy giving Iraq its true autonomy
your family comes from Kenya you bring us hope of a Kennedy
This once in a lifetime opportunity
hoping this country and congress you can bring to unity 
From fighting for civil rights to KKK burning cross and throwing bombs at night.
From Dr. King let freedom ring
To Rodney King 1992 Cali riot swings all these things
Nat Turner leading slaves to rebel
David Walker encouraged those enslaved to break from their cell
John Brown and Fredrick Douglas the abolitionist
To black power raising Olympic fist John Carlos and Tommie Smith
Black panthers Angela Davis and Huey Newton patrolling with a shotgun
To run Jesse run
To the underground-railroad with Harriet Tubmon
This is where we come from
Never succumb to oppression fighting for freedom
We will not panic or get frantic
You Mr. President will fix up this country like a political mechanic
Yes you did I never thought I would live
Long enough to see a black man in the white house crib but there it is
Everybody got to do what he says cause for the next four years he's the pres-ident, it's no accident some meant to lament and resent but this is your moment
Been waiting since the thirteenth Amendment
Singing we shall over come from marching in Selma Alabama now we Barrack Obama
From protest and picket lines to jail cells and welfare lines now it's our time to shine
From niggers to negros
Dreadlocks and Afros
Look how we grow
From African American to American
Yes we can yes we can

- DubbleX

(added 03.05.09)

Be bop poem

Rip rocken
Sure shocken
Be boppen
Get things poppen
Drown in the avalanch of sound
Smooth riffs of saxophones
Drum and bass a cacophony of tones
Jazzy melodies and 20-minute solos
In the flow it goes
Listen to him blow up and down the scale
Climbing to the top the cat sure can wail
He's a musical genius, tremendous
The bass and sax make you tingle and relax
He's a legend of jazz
Pushing it to out of breath
His breath control circular breathing
Look close, you can see his chest heaving
Covering the night club with a musical flood
Sound so bold and bright playing deep into the night
Fingers quick in a split kicking off licks
He makes it look so easy and sound so ready
Accompanied by a throbbing bass and drumming pace
Like busting through darkness
His sound drips then gushes
He lived that lush life high as a kite, drinks or smack he could play that sax
Expressing emotions and feeling his be bop beat no one else could compete so unique and complete be free style or off the sheet
he captured the vibe of city streets
Back in the day that man could play
Fast or slow sweet and mellow
He played like the sound of a sunrise
He played like the sound of the dawn
Quiet like whispers of nightfall
The beat of heavy rainfall, deep in the jungle call
Notes squealing and squeaking like his instrument was speaking kept peaking the next level seeking
Made you feel something playing music sounding like running so stunning backed by drumming bass fingers strumming
He uncovered explored and opened sounds to his sax roar
want more want more
how that melody did soar in score after score
The cymbal and the high hat the toe tap
Plays filling the empty spaces a colorful oasis with rhythm chases
guides our ears through a maze of amazing solos the way you blow
Like no other like no other
Saxophone smothered
There you go again blowing like a northeasterly wind
So free so easy so easy so free
Holding those high notes making music float playing in the haze of your dope
Your music stands the test of time
It is everlasting forceful blasting
I like to listen to you in my different mind states help me escape
I want to ride that Blue Train
With My Favorite things
Making that soprano sax sing
Want to make my Ascension with Giant Steps
To the Afro Blue Impression
To Meditations
Got to hear that Love Supreme
From the Blue Note to The Village Vanguard
You were kicking it heavy and hard
Getting down with Monk and Miles
That free jazz invented your own style

- DubbleX

(featured in the poetry forum 03.05.09)

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER DOLLAR part II

I’m tired of all the shit I holler
Clocking in and clocking out
everybody checking to see what I'm about
I can't afford a money drought – my apartment - I’d be kicked out
these kids so out of control ~ I got to find a way to stay on the payroll
Gotta grab hold or I’ll land in the poverty hole
So it's another day another dollar another bus ride another crowded train ride another day I wish to die a painless suicide
we got these 9 to 5's to survive but they deprive and kill the creative forces inside
paying me to work for my time which is running low don't know the final total when it's my time to go- the work day goes slow - feel like I want to explode -
I don't fit the mold
got to work till I'm old they crush my soul with their control daily
I try not to fold
try to keep hold
Kids talk back I stand in the room and stare till the room turns black so slow to react students act up they won't stay shut in my mind
I wish to brandish a gun at these young kin. They get under my skin, begin talking with wide grins, they don’t want this education
Forced into the classroom unable to absorb this situation
I wish to work for another company or organization but a desk job is just as hard
With no real vacations forced to do till the day is through
Another day another dollar my pay check is not enough to cover my debts and bills financially climbing hills con-ed sprint rent child support still in court with my ex about money flow, she wants alimony not just child support, no way to abort, my money comes up short
Money comes and goes like the wind blows runs through my hands like fine sand Everyday I try not to get canned but I would not mind getting fired or early retired Everyday I’m so tired drinking two cups of coffee one Starbucks they both suck
Can hardly stay awake
Napping on my break not more of this I can take
See I got a disability so it makes shit harder for me
Some doctors want to give me lithium or lock me in an insane asylum, not sure about outcome, trying to control my dis-ease
I just continue to do what I can do daily my heart skips a work beat

- DubbleX

(added 03.05.09)