Suture (On Haiti and D.R.)

There is no border only a suture

Stitched by stigmas.

Our states have holes in them

From sticking to their guns,

Stigmata.

The only things bigger than the earth is our prejudice

And faith will move mountains

But it cannot budge ignorance.

An island divided amongst itself cannot stand.

We are broken, being pinned by the paralysis of empire.

Rwanda reminds me of Republica.

I was taught to hate you,

Echoing whispers spread like notes in a classroom.

Do you hate Haiti? Circle yes.

Want to see Stockholm syndrome?

Visit my republic, where slavery is ugly

But our slave masters are beautiful.

Little girls wither in the mirror

Trying to get that hair just right

Wishing they were just White

But our blood is Triguena, Morena y Negra,

Como Cela in la Sierra Maestra.

We are masters of this bestia.

Our island was the 1st Black republic of this hemisphere.

And I want to tag that in big block letters on the 1 train,

Because it’s easy to forget.

We are laced with lull lullabies that lose track of our lament.

Listen to the mountains.

They DJ “Fight the Power”.

It’s evident that PE sampled Haiti.

Its #1 export isn’t sugar, its revolution,

The Panther’s original source material for fighting the imperial.

In fact, we should open a chain of stores

In front of the hotels built on the most famous of shores.

It’s slogan would be:

“Stomping out European colonialism since before eighteen-O-four.”

You see, we used to be powerful

We used to be whole,

But centuries of surgery left a suture

And there are no borders any more,

Only scars stitched by stereotypes.

Come to D.R. if you want to deconstruct a duality.

Research how far a people can be pushed before they hate themselves.

Our conditioning is sick.

And on the whim of others a border was stitched.

The truth is they have sutured borders into all of us.

Secluding our Afro-centric sentiments.

That’s why we straighten our mountains and bleach our lands,

Segregate our cities and privatize our sands.

Pero yo, soy Aytiano.

And God does not make borders,

Only mountains. 

Soul on Ice RMX

…Violence begets violence

And every day I fight against silence

Unleash my mind on the world

Finger down my third eye and I hurl…

I don’t release masterpiece creations

Just share with ya the abominations

Cuz ya ain’t ready in Obama’s nation

So consider this a light mental molestation

Don’t ask me why I write if that’s your contemplation

I’ll tell you to study the earth and pollination

How you gonna understand the flow of my creation

When you don’t understand the physics of condensation…

You hear a rapper but respect the mula

Just cus you smoke don’t mean you close to Buddha

Ain’t about that life but I live a door from it

That’s what happens when your soul is your stomach… glutoness

What’s the price of a soul?

When you seen some things make you cold

Nightmares from the things that you know

No heart no more just a hole and the flow

Dear God, what’s the price of a soul?

When you seen some things make you cold

Nightmares from the things that you know

No heart no more just a hole and the flow

I ain’t afraid of death I can’t wait to be home

Living here where loyalty’s a word to be thrown

Every action is a conversation

And I’m listening writing it down in a compilation

I got an army not for salvation

Living in between the damned and damnation

I know why men get lost in a bottle

The surprise of the stab and the pain that follows

Make you wanna sleep till your hollow…

I made a promise to Apollo…

But now I crossed the Styx do you follow

When the footprints lead to a corpse in the grotto

And the pain is greater than tomorrow’s

Hope so you start to drink all your sorrows

Fell so far that you can’t rise above it

But the devil sweet and you start to love it… treacherous  

What’s the price of a soul?

When you seen some things make you cold

Nightmares from the things that you know

No heart no more just a hole and the flow

Dear God, what’s the price of a soul?

When you seen some things make you cold

Nightmares from the things that you know

No heart no more just a hole and the flow

*Listen to Soul on Ice RMX

Her Soul

Her soul is a sanctuary,
My favorite place to hide.
Her smile a zephyr,
Whispering the secrets of spring.

Summer lovers say,
"Her words fall upon the wind."
But my heart is not a door revolved, 
There are few who enter.
And though the cold grow it slow, 
Spring is treasure, 
For the man who's lived in winter.

Grasp

For so long I have grasped tightly

To a dream state you spoke of.

I poured all of me

Into this paradise of fools

And now I have come to mourn,

To take these hands

To the sea,

So I can finally release this weight.

I will wait till summer

Until the sun is brightest

So that it’s warmth

Can fill me the way

Your words once did.

How bitter the taste of a dream

Left out too long.

2 hands clasped-

Tightly, nails digging into skin.

I thought I carried a truth and a dream

But there were worms in the fruit you sold me.

And still I held them

Hoping that time would play alchemist.

Your words are truths I no longer believe in.

And I will bring them to the sea,

And let Poseidon play host in your lost paradise.

And for the 1^st time in years

My hands will feel the freedom

To create a dream

Worth holding onto. 

Love Is

Love is mornings spent entangled in you.

I don't want to get up.
So I hide underneath you and shoo the day away.

"Go away day, this feels too right."

The alarm rings again and I rise.
I laugh at the irony.
I go to work and sacrifice the sweetness of now,
So I can later afford more moments
Just like this.

Lonliness

I would never miss her call.
I'm too afraid she might leave.
She's left before,
But I know where to find her.
She's never far.
She asks for much
But I'm much obliged.
For she's taught me 
To hold this pride.
And so I kiss a chance at bliss,
As I go to lengths,
To maintain this relationship 
With loneliness.

If Black People

A response to: “If Black people stop committing so much crime then they wouldn’t get harassed or arrested soo much.”

The statement “well if they [Black people] stop committing so much crime then [they wouldn’t get harassed or arrested soo much]” is ridiculous and ignorant, although I believe most Americans share that uninformed opinion. I know different for the following reasons: 

1. There is a lack of correlation between crime and punishment. Although U.S. crime rates have been on par with other Western countries our rate of incarceration has skyrocketed (interesting since people were not committing more crime). For example, our crime rates in the 60’s were matching those of Germany and while our incarceration rate quadrupled in the 90’s, Germany’s remained stat quo. Our crime rates as of late are below the international norm; however, we have an incarceration rate 6-10 times greater than any other “developed” nation. What this means is that we have created and maintained a prison industrial complex. We have a system of laws, policies and enforcement created to disproportionately incarcerate a segment of the U.S. population (Black and latin@ people).

2. 40% of Black people incarcerated are there for non violent drug offenses. So is it that Black people sell and use wild crazy amounts of drugs, more so than White people? No. Though you may think so if you tune into any form of mainstream media, because they have been demonizing Black folks since slavery. All races use and sell drugs at similar rates. For example in 2000 the National Institute on Drug Abuse did a study that showed that white students where 8 times more likely to use crack than black students and 7 times more likely to use cocaine. So no drugs are not only a Black or brown problem.

3. Drug dealers aren’t just in the hood; they come in all shapes and sizes. Most White people buy from White dealers, yet there is a discrepancy in rates that Blacks and Whites are imprisoned.

In short it’s about who the police choose to stop and why; and what happens to that person once arrested and in the system. Are they told to plead guilty by their court appointed attorney, just because the odds are against them, innocence be damned. Black people especially poor and working class Black men are pushed into the prison industrial complex at disproportionate rates to their White counterparts who are committing the same kinds of crime at a greater rate! This is not only my academic conclusion but my personal experience having been stopped, questioned and stopped & frisked numerous times with no just or probable cause. Hope this was enlightening.

All the statistical information came from the research and citation of Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow.” Alexander is a civil rights advocate and litigator and has worked with the A.C.L.U..

Here are some other interesting points in her book, just the tip of the iceberg:

*In her book, “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander states that the U.S. has a racial caste system that “stigmatizes a racial group and locks them into an inferior position by law and custom.” “The term mass incarceration refers not only to the criminal justice system but also to the larger web of laws, rules, policies and customs that control those labeled criminals in and out of prison. Once released, former prisoners enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion. They are members of America’s new undercaste.”  

**”The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its Black population than South Africa did at the height of Apartheid.”

If you’re really interested in this subject here is a link to the book!

http://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595581030/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324259753&sr=1-1

La Herida

La herida

Mas dolorosa

Es la que

No mata

Y no la causa

La bala,

La espada,

O los puños

Es la traicion

Del Corazon

La que te

Déjà vivo

Sin esperanza

De un fin