WE ARE GUILTY OF
FORGETTING WHO WE ARE
i am in a room
4 walls, ceiling, floor
2 windows, a door
outside the window is the world
no walls, sky, earth
death, birth, & the relative briefness of life
inside is the same as outside
only smaller, less complex
outside is the same as inside
only bigger, more choices & possibilities
there are only three questions to ask/to answer
1. who am i, 2. what is the world
& 3. how do i change, love or leave it
nothing else except
maybe
god sitting somewhere
marveling at our transformation, god
mystified, unable to explain the logic
of how we have become just like
the pseudo-human creatures
who enslaved our ancestors
wow
after all the centuries of racist bullshit,
lynchings, chattel slavery & such that
we black people have suffered
who would have thought
that violent savages
& impotent religious fanatics
is what we would be come
wow
—kalamu ya salaam