AMISTAD

Rion Scot

Displaced

Elitist Rebels Massacre Thousands

Comrades

Imagining Unity

Constant Elevation

Subtext

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Displaced

 

Murdered long before I slid from

my mother's womb/It was long

decided that I'd never be allowed

to live/First traded for power and

position/Then sacrificed by the

highest bidder/The man who was born

a ghost/Now walks the street/An

apparition displaced in time/

Simultaneously chasing a dream and

living a nightmare ...

Existence is in the shadows/Where

lives are crushed for a

microeconomic high/Where the

landlords refuse to trouble the

rats because they're in cahoots/

Where souls leave bodies because

they can't stand the wear and tear/

And where bodies accept this as the

inevitability of life.

Here is where/I/try to comfort you,

But can only watch as/we displaced souls

slip through each other's arms.

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Elitist Rebels Massacre Thousands

 

Elitist rebels stormed the capital yesterday

Like right-wing, ballerina thug

 

Shoving their guns in our chests

They fed us bitter food they called gourmet.

My comrades regurgitated their meals on me like fresh $100 bills

 

Some of them even began to believe.

Part of me still does.

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Comrades

 

I C comrades they see competition

I open my arms

Comrades don't want to listen

Maybe it was something I lacked.

I became like them

When they shot me in the back.

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Imagining Unity

 

Imagine me, imagine you

Imagining your eyes free of the image of tears

That imagine themselves

As streams of comfort for a love-afflicted heart.

 

What do you imagine when imagine the fire

That lights the candle without the death of the oxygen

That burns for your light?

I imagine no spark.

 

What do you see when you see the diamond that symbolizes forever?

I see a piece o f coal squirming beneath

A million pounds of pressure

Wishing he didn't have to squirm at all.

 

Just as many torturous yesterdays died

So that today's beauty can live;

The sunrise never spoke of

The tomorrows that will be crucified to give you everlasting life.

 

So I ask you to stop imagining me, imagining you

Without the image of tears

That imagine themselves

As comfort for a love afflicted heart.

 

Because

All you'll

Imagine is

Hollow Unity.

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Constant Elevation

 

I heard heavenly words more

fiery than hell and brimstone.

 

Sharp arrows aimed at my enemy's

heart/The man quoted Mao Tse

Tung/"Power comes from the

barrel of a gun"/ Told me my

legacy was one with Amilcar

Cabral/Che in Cuba/ L'Overture

freeing Caribbean slaves

 

But I felt more like

Cyrano/More in tune with Romeo

 

Ask me to take it to the

streets some other time/Right

now/ my mind is on Peace.

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Subtext

 

I don't get it the black gay guy

Said to his laughing White crew.

Maybe he didn't actually say it,

But I thought I heard it.

 

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