“Listen to this fool
trying to put me down.
Calling me the N-word
just because my skin is brown.
…Well, I thought I told you once,
but I’ll tell you once again:
Anyone can be a N-word!
It doesn’t matter about his skin.
I’ve seen some high yellow N-word(s).
And some all white too!
And yes! I’ve even seen some N-word(s) who are deep black-blue.
So pay attention Mr. Know-it-All
because I want YOU to get this straight:
Just because my skin is black
dirty N-word ain’t my fate.”

(c) Carmon A. Armstrong

Yes I would like to trade this pair of shoes, for a pair of Timberlands
They were my Grandfather’s marching shoes, he passed them down to me he
told me that they would help me take a stand
He said he marched in those shoes until they open the school doors to
educate the black man
He said he marched in those shoes until he had the right to vote
Democrat or Republican
He said he marched in those shoes until they had grass and mud stain
from all over America’s land
He said he marched in those shoes while being hit with bricks and
bottles because he had some demands
He said he wanted to be able to drink from any water fountain his
thrist commanded
My Grandfather sure did a lot of marching in those shoes just to prove
the black man was a man
I would not do that to my Timberlands

Nonsense Makes Sense

We tango sambo
Manifesting delicious
Delinquency to the tune
Of tito
Ditto machito & his afro-cubans
Plantation palpitations
Bandana fandango
Somber sambo
Santeria celia
Cruz middle passage
Memorizing meringue
Sherbro sho bro
Talk that talk
Tantalize romanticize
Defecate delinquencies
Until p diddy’s umbrella
Is eunichized

Colonial Colón
Original origami
Paper tigers like Swans, geishas, Gertrude
& Virginia
Shakespeare’s sister
In a room of her own
But I’da b well damned
If that be my destiny.

Isis Osiris
Sister brother
Wife husband
ashes spread across seven skies
And I, sis, come looking
Reunification rectification
Holy wholeness
Can’t flub it
Or fuck with it
Untouchable like beloved
Whole womb
Embraces total nut
And it’s on
Like donkey kong
Or king kong.
who ain’t got nuttin on me
Cept extended stomach
Moon round
Full and fecund
Digging the ground
For roots
Sooty black foots my only carriage
But divorce not marriage
That be how I do it do i
While you try to woo it
only to end up rueing it
behind some foolish shit

but that ain’t the end
as I extend into tomorrow
no sorrow
as I search the world round
for the proper noun
to give my seed

P.A.C vs my history
sobukwe no way
Dahomey da homey
Africa to america
Da homey
Get it on, Gat it on
get get gone
only grass seen
prison lawn

don 3 of 4
1^st sankara
2^nd kono
And yeah, fauna
Has his name
Nowhere near lame

And I reclaim my fame
Signing my true name
I, Sis, You, Bro, San, Son
Isis Osiris and Horus
True trinity.

©2006 Tichaona M. Chinyelu