Curious © Spring Johnson
© 2003 Sandra Jean-Pierre
Brown baby
Brown baby
Brown baby
Brown baby…
It’s not supposed to happen this way
but day twelve looks back at me
while I look at them
with no way to explain
why beans and rice were too much of a luxury
to have on the same day…
…in this pseudo-maternal
head of household at nineteen
reality that pinned me to the hem of my consciousness
when I learned the hard-pressed truths of
this system of assistance
that’s just another yoke of humiliation and dependence
in this fatherless/brother less void we’re kept in –
Gimme a break social worker!!
I’m just trying to feed my family…
…while my nights were spent wondering “Am I doing the right things?”
as I feel my family’s pain in unrelenting waves
crash through my bedroom walls
yet I pray grace & mercy for our uncertain futures,
like David writing the Psalms,
only I was too sick with my grief and confusion
to keep myself open to things divinely…
…cause you see,
it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
…and with each week that
turned into each month
that rolled into the years
we spent battling back
the motherless – ism’s
of a society that never knew we existed
the stakes kept getting higher
and our spirits kept getting lower
and either I or them needed an end
I said either I or them needed an end…
to the suffocating mis-education
of our life expectancies as
brown babies
brown babies
drowning in the wake
of these tragedies
…mother
father
take care of us brown babies
cause we grow up to be me
we grow up to be you
we grow up to be those statistics they
lead us to believe are true
… but it’s not supposed to be this way
I’m not supposed to be repeating the
struggles of my mother or her mother
and I’m not supposed to be fighting against
my brother or my father
and I’m not supposed to be
suffering under this damnation
of half left-over lives
that I need to fill
against my will
while trying to bring the
younger ones up with me
cause no one else is around to help get us free
No!
No!
It’s not supposed to happen this way
No!
No!
It’s not supposed to be this way
…and instead of you standing by
letting us sink deeper and deeper into these lies
get close
and open your arms to us
open your soul to us
open your consciousness
open your waking mind
to this shifting reality
Cause it’s not supposed to happen this way
It’s not supposed to happen this way
for us
Brown babies
Brown babies
Brown babies
Brown babies…
It’s not supposed be this way for us.
Recent Comments