I am Black

And So I am political

I am a man

I am poet

I am a son

A student

A Friend

But am Black

And so I am political

You see,

My isolation informs my identity politics

I am a poet first

And a negro last

But when were studying Black history

I’m the only nigger in the class

I am Black

And So I am political

Alone in wasp’s nest

Being stung by you ignorance

I’m fighting for my identity

So I became unapologetically Black

In your face political

Standing, like a lone warrior

At night

In front of the white house

With a black bandana on

Shouting at your president

And ready war

I am Black and alone

And therefore maverick political

I am revolutionarily Black

Sitting in the back of your classrooms

Planning your destruction on the mid-term

Top of the class political

A average political

Dean’s list political

I am award winning political.

I once told a teacher

There is no black history

There is American History

And that I don’t need a month

I need a text book that goes past

Martin Luther King

Because a lot Black folk got dreams

Deferred

Or shouted

But not heard.

See My American Dreams

Isn’t about little white girls

And little black girls

It’s about a Black man

Alone in this classroom

Being treated like a charity case

“Oh come look our nigger”

“Or, your not like the other black people”

I am not Cake walking political

I am no affirmative action political

I am here, because I’m better than you

I don’t get handed A’s

I take them.

My GPA is not welfare

It’s the fruit of my labor

I grew it on my own lands

And you better believe I’m the one that’s goin’ eat it.

And have it too

And you know what?

I’m playing the race card because

It’s the only card I got

You’re forcing me to play poker

But said there’s no cards for being a poet

There’re no cards for students

No cards for revolutionaries

No other cards for me

So I got a full house now

200 hundred years of slavery

And 3 cousins in jail.

So if all you can see is a black man

Than I’ll make sure it’s a black man with a black fist

And a ten point plan

I’ll make sure I have barrette on

My Malcolm X shirt

And the darkest skin you’ve ever seen

And if I’m so well spoken

I’ll be out side you building with a bull horn

I’ll walk into the class room with a microphone

Recited poetry to your soul

Just so you can hear this

I am Black

So trying to make you political