Dred Scott

Dred Scott’s buried up the road from Ferguson

Pennies on the headstone / roses for a murdered son

Lincoln past & present / Civil War / we just heard a gun

History repeats, but at least I hope we’re learning some

This is for the slave ships / This is for the fifty schools

This is for the bullets in the body & the blood that pools

This is for 2008 / This is for 2012

This is for 2017 / What once was is something else

I am not the only one

who thought the name “Obama”

would usher in a brand new day

& had their naiveté bombed

& I am not the only one

who sees the system’s dying.

This fascist shit is capitalism’s

last breath / what crazy timing –

to be born in 1989,  

right into revolution

children of God /  & all we got

are pens to write solutions

but what a wasted life I’d live

unless I joined the struggle

to win the world for our kids

I’ll risk getting in trouble

cuz trouble’s getting into me

a thousand Michael Browns

have fallen in this battle

in just two years in my town

& I am not the only one

who knows what is enough

are we not human, after all,

and made of the same stuff?

Cuz Dred Scott’s buried up the road from Ferguson

Pennies on his headstone like roses for a murdered son

Linkin’ past & future / this is war / we keep hearing guns

History repeats, but at least I hope we’re learning some…