One Black Body

One black body.

As the teardrops spout thro’ the windows of my eyes

It’s hard to visualize paradise

Regained thro’ the tools of compromise.

But a foot-soulja like me

Knows the drill to never say die.

From below surface, like boosted rockets, I climb

Mortifying every challenge with retaliation.

A master of my own kismet, I execute my obligation

Operating on a higher level of courage

That would function nowhere else but center stage.

(If you must know anything man, know thyself!)

And commands awe like a clutter of spent shells.

Reigning in identity,

My affections sprung on the labors of integrity.

Souls of ancestors

Watching on, watching me, from the grandstand.

Applauding the triumphs of a survivor;

A true native son

In one black body.

There’s no one who can change my tomorrow today.

My course is charted

And the light of my life is waking

On the horizon. Cause my Red Sea’s parted.

Now I know why the caged bird sings.

I’m drunk on invention n’ ammunition,

Bracing the glare of the sun as it penetrates my rust.

Hate couldn’t displace my faith

Cause my rage and grace erased the bait of hate.

This is my pride of place:

The remolding of a pound of clay.

And my past shall not defect my future,

I adopted dyin’ to live as an item of ritual.

Prodding with ideas that’ll explode in the light,

My ideas wake me in the watches of the night.

I’ll take it and let it be

In one black body.

And in this body

Will arise the making of dynasties;

The unmaking of impossibilities;

The breaking of infinities,

Till kingdom come.

To testify how I walked thro’ walls

Before the keeper of all that is kept-

When I stand on that holy mountain-

Of a creature coming home with a 100 fold talent;

Of a worm’s strength when tests rose up like Cain.

Of new beginnings from a past of defeat;

About the determination of a Negro

Prompted by his enthusiasm and belief

In a simple childhood code.

Till I kick up a new facet of history

In one black body

I stand in awe of a past rooted in pain.

My soul bleeds at the mention of history’s shame.

Downtrodden but not downcast;

Blacklisted but going strong with a blast.

I leap on the back of the wind and cruise

World’s unknown my mind in tune with my muse.

And still not buying into a white-washed history.

Take one peek at mystery’s next-big-thing;

Drink your fill of a jewel of peculiar worth,

Shouldn’t come as a surprise I got balls n’ a song.

Situation steeped me in a turd of imperfection

Still the makings of me exhale God’s own split image.

Used to go around flashing a badge of shame

Only to get flung up by Redemption’s ditty.

This is where my forever story derives its beginning:

In one black body.

Akpan

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Battlefield

I’ll have my destiny, if you please:

Not an open sesame,

But that unique individuality

Born of Divinity’s ingenuity.

If it leads me thro’ valley dark n’ deep

Or pastures green with peace

Well, that’s just on more detail

Riding hard on my back trail.

Nevertheless, I want my destiny.

I know there’s a race

I was born to finish.

I can almost feel

The glory of the calling I was born to fulfill.

It’s got the irresistible pull

Of a mission yet incomplete.

I will not be satisfied

Until I breach the finish line.

There’s a destiny,

There’s no denying it,

I was created to accomplish.

Without this I won’t be established.

I’m sick n’ tired of running with the pack,

I’m pulling through for something deeper.

I’m reaching for the mystery behind the cloud;

I want a unique destiny.

I’m not settling for no two-bit hypocrisy

And I damn ain’t quitting on me.

If time wraps up eternity

Until I lay hold on the immortal

Then don’t take it personal.

I ain’t afraid of what my future holds

If my fate is really what destiny molds.

Don’t tell me it ain’t all that

If it’s mine

You bet I want it bad.

Fools may sashay the rose-strewn path,

I guess it’s their birthright but I don’t play that.

I got the strength of character

To risk my balls and get my life on point.

I want my destiny,

I want the meanest particle;

I want to write my history,

Pencil the least article.

I want to bust forth from within the shadow

Riding inspiration’s neck as he rushes from bone to marrow;

Quickening the spirit to the soul,

Working the tissues as one complete whole.

I want to sink my roots into the sands of purposefulness

And I gatto reach out with my branches to welcome the fullness.

As I stem the course of my existence on the walls of fame

Driven by a fiery forge of faith.

Let me chart my fate.

Here I stay in this place

Seeking to know as I’m known.

But not likely when my heart is cold.

I want to be obsessed by my destiny

And my destiny possessed by me.

Excuse me, if I sound a bit cut up

It’s the things that define me that’s bottled up

By the codes of etiquette;

And the plugs that make me tick are splayed

As Thomas Copycat’s buffet.

That’s why I want a fiery destiny;

A map for life charted in hell’s basement,

Tested by fire and found unwanting.

I am decided I will be reconciled to my soul mate;

Lock hands with my identity and go out blazing.

This raw feel within, broiling

Rushing intense conviction sick for release

By the touch of destiny.

If I gatto give a life time,

Sooner or later, the blood always hits the wall,

I’ll offer it up with delight.

Who I will be I will be, somehow;

I want my destiny, anyhow.

Akpan

I Am

I am the prince of Egypt

And this is the slaying of the Egyptian.

I am Mahatma Ghandi

And this is the revolution of the Indians.

I am Oliver Twist

I dare ask for more.

I am Mount Everest

Standing tall with the clouds in my hair.

I am Sizwe Bansi

This is King Williams Towm.

I am Steven Barnes

And this The Great Sky Woman;

I am John Bunyan

Visualize this Pilgrim’ Progress.

I am Ludwig Van Beethoven

And this here’s my 5th Symphony.

I am Will Smith

I am Legend.

I am Nostradamus

And this is tomorrow.

I am MLK

With big dreams to never stop being free.

I am Homer

And this is the Iliad;

I am Nelson Mandela

This is the unconditionally free South Africa!

I am MJ

I am off the wall.

I am Jane Taylor

Twinkle, twinkle I’m a star!

I am John Milton

No sweat. This is Paradise Regained.

I am Christopher Columbus

This is the New World.

I am Maya Angelo

And Still I Rise

I am a firefly

And this is the darkest of night.

I am Miriam Makeba

And this is Aluta Continua.

I am 2pac,

I was born not to make it but I did!

I am William Wordsworth

And this child is father of the man.

I am Gulliver

And this is Lilliput.

I am Charles Dickens

And this is the story of Copperfield.

I am Achebe;

I thrive as Things Fall Apart.

I am Luther Vandross

Stealing one final dance with my father.

I am the Trojan horse

Within is an arsenal to capture a fortified city.

I am Abe Lincoln

And this is the Proclamation of Emancipation.

I am Mungo Park

This is the stretch of the Niger.

I am the Magi

And this is the cradle in a manger.

I am Hamlet:

To be or not to be?

I am the Shepherd boy;

Give me five smooth rocks and I’ll slay a giant.

I am Arthur

And this is Excalibur.

I am Wole Soyinka

I am the pride of the Jewel.

I am Tananarive Due

And this is My Soul to Keep.

I am Negro;

The whole world is African soil.

I am Napoleon Bonaparte

I came, I saw, I conquered.

I am Tupac Amaru Shakur;

Sheez, it’s just Me Against the World.

I am Terry McMillan

This is how I got my groove back.

I am Stephen King:

And this is The Stand.

Akpan

Drama

                                A little bit of attitude

Another sister impregnated

Another accidental product of a mindless twosome.

Another brother incarcerated

Politicians they call us the modern Sodom.

Now we got a new barbershop around the corner

Thanks to the system college dropout increasingly normal.

The streets are more or less unsafe

We on the bloody failure’s backtrail.

They call life a picnic

While the ghetto kid’s rationing meals.

The essence of power they abusin’

We workin’ our souls sick

They busy talkin’ sh*t.

Have a young chap share his thoughts on the future

He’ll lay it on you it’s a defect of nature

He was ever born or preserved by nurture.

Can you picture the dilemma?

Situation’s full of drama like King’s Dreamcatcher.

It’s hanging way all up over our heads

Like the sword of Damocles

Holding on to nothing but a strand of hair.

We await the promise of a ghetto miracle.

If you never been to this side of the line

You ain’t know what it means to survive.

It’s like sweet goodbyes and sad hellos.

Still a ghetto star’s never known to compromise.

In the ghetto, it’s like we locked up

Ya’ll in the hood and everything’s just clogged up:

Mama’s got a trade,

Papa’s got a spade,

Big brother’s got a shaving blade

Oh, and that’s for the barbershop.

Little sisters weaving braids

And now you know what’s up.

Politicians spitting heresies

Mouthing murderous blasphemies

But seriously, no one’s seen their taillights recently.

Society inflicting pain on bleeding injury.

My homes subjected to penury

The government ya’ll penny pinching.

Ghetto children sinking

I know some defeats’ more triumphant than victory.

We intend to change the situation

Consequences of the impasse,

Yes, we can. We full of ammunition

Redirecting our energies like a compass.

The tragedy won’t come to pass.

Got the masses

Chewing grasses

Sweating their a**es

Rulers making passes

Let’s skip these classes.

The program’s busted

Me and my crews the most wanted.

The charge?...

Gang related.

Trying to get us annihilated.

Well you know they say,

Don’t sweat it.

Raised in the ghetto for dilemma,

The nation ain’t helping matters.

We feel a hunger for survival.

The pressure’s

Way beyond measure.

If you believe we was the future

How come we ain’t treasured?

I’m burning my brains out

Trying to find the way out

It’s hard to stay on the grind

I’m freaking out on the inside.

Picture the tears in the kid’s eyes

Yet, hypocrites entertain us with lies.

Waddup in this mother?

Don’t know ‘bout chu but we call it, drama.

Akpan