black birds

I never knew that Black Birds didn’t have wings

Just as well, as I didn’t know that Black Boys didn’t have futures

I never knew how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop

Just as well, as I don’t know how much more Black blood will be spilled before we get to the center of this epidemic

All I know is these Black Birds don’t have wings….they were clipped at birth

We can’t raise sons, cuz we too busy raising soldiers

You wake up to Folgers

We wake up to gun shots and sirens and the weight of the world on our shoulders

You sit back and sip your 8-dollar cup of latte and read about us in the newspapers… we living it

You send your children off to Ivy League Colleges, while our Black birds are limited

And it’s such a shame that white privileged America will never understand the plight of these Black Birds that can’t take Flight, knowing the closest they will ever come to fly, is a fresh pair of Jordans

We are in a war and it ain’t overseas, it’s over J’s…. and they killing niggas for em

These Black Birds ain’t never seen a day of sunlight, all while you bathe in it

You bathe in rose petals and chrysanthemums, while we watch our Black Birds take blood baths

And the closest they ever come to receiving flowers, is at funerals… when they can’t even smell em

And to you these Black Birds are nothing but felons

And their future always was this….

But I’m a serve their sentences, through these sentences, while my lips bleed poetic justice

And its like, we’re in some kind of deadly contest

Cuz, For Us By Us, does not mean we must kill us, so I guess FUBU got taken outa context

These Black Birds lay nestled in projects

Killing each other for a slice of the american pie and they ain’t even get a crumb yet

Meanwhile…. You send your children off to learning institutions to pose for their school photos

While our Black Birds are posing for mug shots

Buck shot riddled bodies, shell casings become treasures and caskets become futures

These Black Birds are an endangered species and to America, they have already become extinct

To america these Black Birds are nothing but symbolisms of death and destructions, with broken wings and silenced beaks

But to me, these Black Birds are more beautiful and magical than a red tailed African Congo with wings that spread wide and proud like a peacock…. And in actuality they always had wings

They just didn’t know how to use them

-Pretty Blaq-