MELVIN GRIFFIN, JR.
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THE TREE
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We all connected, mob mentality, organized like family, one... mob for justice
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To hang up our differences to die by asphyxiation ... weed the seeds of the racial tension straining the past...
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I beg for truth... cuz some of y’all remember the bitter aftertaste of strange fruit
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But it must be that global warming as the climate for hate is growing a crop beyond the borders of race.
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The present crisis... Taliban and Isis while the priest demonstrates on his lawn by burning Qurans so bring a torch and set fire to this night...
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The only veil we need to remove is the one from our sight under the hood of
self-preservation we romanticize violence to pacify inequalities
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When what we fail to see is... if any of us wearing shackles, ain’t none of us free...
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Left, Right, Sunni, Shia, Christian, Islam, Protestants battle Catholics in Ireland. African
rebels attack and are met with resistance...
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But from a great distance it’s so hard to tell the difference... We lost in the details, not for no reason the very place they say the devil dwells
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As freedom of choice falls into the wrong hands... by our actions let’s give it a different voice Cuz what we do today impacts tomorrow...
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It take more muscles to frown than it do to smile... So together let’s turn this thing around
we can build a brighter future or easily tear it down
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Under the hood of self-defense we romanticize a better world in which each nation builds a bigger fence
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When what we fail to see is if any of us are prisoners, ain’t none of us free.
GRATEFUL
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I live for them that gone them that God called home. Them that can’t afford to
light they stove or heat they home.
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I live for the repressed them that can’t lift the burden from they chest. Them
that gave blood and sweat yet for all they gave regret is all that’s left.
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I live for them that gone them who will never come home. Them caught in civil
war but can’t afford to leave they home.
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I live for the abused who suffered from they youth into adulthood for failure to
find any other use.
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I live for an uncle who’s in jail. My moms whose liver failed. My pops who’s
getting up there in age and think that we can’t tell.
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I live for world peace, ‘cuz it starts at home... What peace can we bring the
middle east if we haven’t brought it to our own.
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I live like... I’m free, ‘cuz that’s what America was supposed to be created for
the equal to pursue life and liberty.
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I live for my family to see my life just to remind them that this right here is
grace so get it right...
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