“A Seat at the Table”

On the brink of social gentrification

our human algorithm reincarnated the invisible hand of humanity

the back-bending beast of multi-directional disorder

can no longer be hidden in policy.

 

Generation NOW,

bull horned social justice bravery

stood on the cornerstone of determination

to become the nation’s modern-day face of accountability

dis-en-fran-chise-ment  is no longer my ethnicity,

equality has become my race.

The moral fabric of impregnated tomorrows

has woven more than cotton gin change.

We surely did not ask for a heritage

of sugar cane slavery, callused hands and feet,

a societal mentality driven by plantation economics.

 

Operation occupy bullet cased “isms”

Calibrated lead pointed directly at brutality

and demands for raising minimum wage.

Social action is more than a right,

it must be a part of your daily life, we talkin’

blood on the leaves, the root, and the pavement too.

Voice-to-change is how we take a seat at the table

so much has been misplaced along the way.

Awareness and intellect are two very different things.

 

 

Whether sitting on the hills of capitalism

mesmerized by middle-class living

or resting in festering impoverished valleys of urban reality,

shared lived experiences

have become the catalyst of affordable education.

My grandparents and community griots would often say

“Power will never be given.

 

It must be taken.”

How do we see beyond the burden of messy policies and denied participation in the

American dream?

The polling stations, complaining with-out engagement

is like vocalized suffocation “I can’t breathe.” 

Ingenuity (in-ju-new-a-tee) has always been our ancestor’s leverage

poll tax payin’, literacy test takin’, property ownership proven,

non-citizenship existence and immigrate migration.

“we know this place.”

 

Governing by force and lack of support,

turned buried corpses breaking their silence,

“demanding to be buried on Freeland.”

Revolt, re-vo-lution, rebellion,

turned overdosing on food deserts,

health crisis, prison populations, astronomical infant mortality, and opioid death rates.

Articulated suffering is not solving bottomless problems.

We are the call to action

Voting, up and down ballot, is how we re-negotiate local governing agreements.

 

History is our foot tool, stand on it, advocate!

Baptized-voices of systemic change

this is beyond negotiating the delivery of services.

Remember,

you are duly authorized to take a seat at the table

or

invite someone to yours.

©️Sierra Leone