before their eyes opened fine threads of social expectation were layered around the infant form distorting the view of the outside world and stunting the growth within an arrested development caused by a malnutrition of truth as had been expected with such containment there were fatalities but such deaths were easily projected onto upbringing
and or personal parental failures leaving the society blameless those that finally emerged from the cultural cocoon were as had been planned unable to discern social injustice accepting the white cane of forced poverty that denied them access to most of the entry points of success living their lives as moths flutter around the flame of hate most disconcerting to the oligarchy however were the few that emerged as dragons
i am the empty space between enslavement and freedom the chasms between what was promised and what came to pass foolish dreams from an ignored lover of freedom who sees nothing more than redefined moments of forgotten stories of the true founders of this nation hidden between the printed lines of history books written in the invisible blood of those enslaved whose undiscovered mass graves are concealed by the blank spaces between the lines of lies your eyes should tread carefully through those spaces so as not to disturb the dead for seeing what lies beneath the surface of this nation’s myths could make you shed tears of shame
the city’s opened up some so streets have begun to be re-inhabited by dreamers and shadow people when i saw the brown bag prophet he seemed none the worst for the wear when i asked about his being he replied nothing has changed myths of freedom still circulate among the masses who’ve ignored the history of america they continue to sing refrains sung since enslavement one more river to cross or to let my people go as if one more compromise or prayer will make a difference son the one thing i’ve learned in this life is enslavement never ended nor was it intended to end subjugation of people of color has been and continues to be codified in the actions and laws of the nation but we keep singing freedom songs as if the words are some magical incantation but child my father’s father sang those songs so i know the words well as well as what will come from them
you demanded that i stand for the flag while insisting i should fall at your feet whenever you offer some morsel of freedom but it was my family that paid in blood for the wealth of this nation we have been enslaved beaten degraded and murdered for centuries without cessation of violence against us for all of those years and yet you pretend to be offended when anyone questions why gratitude should be shown for a history of barbarism
there were oceans of dreams spilling over my youthful hours hours spent naively blind to to my own history and constrained beliefs that social propaganda applied to my thinking webs of lies spun into history books and daily routines webs of deceit molded into invisible leg irons lighter than air so we wearers were unaware of their presence but they have been far more confining than those cast of iron for if one controls the soul then there is no escape
i lie in an open grave the stars stare at me in amazement of my foolish beliefs that i was free and could become and attain anything but the stars know for they have watched men for centuries and understand that few are free and that most are slaves to the desires of others though vassals believe it is their desires that command the course of their future but that is mere delusion a systemic inculcation carefully crafted for the benefit of those in power a lie repeated so many times that like a child told to believe in the unbelievable believes a sandstone dream the banks of one’s soul on a raging river of greed only recognized when the shore of faith gives way and you end up in an open grave being stared at by the stars
