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I was gonna sit this one out
Sit in the back row while other poets
Dip their big toe into the deep crystal blue waters we look down upon
A glistening reflection of ourselves
Yes
And a warning that we’ve been down this dusty road too many times before
The call for us to be filled with American pride
And we're not to remember those who were lynched and died
Returning from fighting for we know not what
A warm summer stirring breeze
Returning black soldiers lynched
Swinging from trees minutes after stepping off the train bound for home
And never getting there
And don’t get me wrong
Don’t get it twisted
not even listed in the history books
Hell
I didn’t even hear of or know my poetic masters until after I got my college degree
I didn’t see no American heroes who looked like me
And before you accuse me of unpatriotic words and deeds and lines
Tell me who got sent out first into the Viet Nam boobie traps and land mines
And blown away first in Revolutionary
Civil
And both world wars
Among the first to volunteer
We were always the pawns on the board
And you were in the back row
Kings on your horses hiding behind the castle walls
Blessings from your bishops
While your queens shopped at the mall
Yup
It was us who always answered the call to serve
And you conservatives still got the nerve to say
We so unpatriotic
But there soon will come a day
Maybe tomorrow
Could be today
You are gonna call out to us
again
to protect what was never ours
And never will be
And we will
Again
And again
Go out to places we don't know
and die there
or come home to be lynched in our uniforms
the price we pay
whether we have the funds or not
to be
American
