Look at me Man……..How could you?

February 11, 2015 Section 8 Squad ART, Poetry 1

look at me man
look in my eyes
and tell me
you can’t see me
I reflect your face
like African mirrors
look at me man
look at my face
and tell me
how could you
snatch me from
the arms of my mother
knowing her language
was all I knew
look at me man
cause I can see you
I reflect you
like African mirrors
don’t look away
look at me man
and tell me
you can’t see me
reaching for my father
as you sell him
like oxen and mares
his shiny black skin
ripped like chicken garments
in the cotton fields of Georgia
look at me
look at me man
look me in my face
and tell me why you don’t care
call my mama
a nigger wench
and drag her by her
nappy hair
throw me over board into the ocean
like shark food
look at me
look at me man
I’m reflecting you like African mirrors
how could you
crush my head
as if I wasn’t the
the same as your kid
he has a mother
why have you murdered mine
in this stolen place
whenever
was man kind
you raped my sister
right in front of my face
then moved my father
from place to place
look at me
look at me man
how could you
look at me
look in my eyes
I reflect you
like African mirrors
you murder kids
and suffer no penalty
you go to church and
come out in white sheets
you leave rotten bodies
in ditches like strange fruit in trees
you separate us
because you know these
would be bloody streets
don’t look away
look at me
look at me man
I reflect you like African mirrors
I would grow to be a man
and you would grow to be my brother
I’m a warrior
I’m a prince
I’m a king
but I will never know
because you murdered me
by crushing my head
after quartering my mother
trying to make her a slave
dust is my grave
look at me
look at me man
how could you
look at me
look at me man
I reflect you like African mirrors
and still I exist