Clipped Wings

BY JALIL MUNTAQIM
freejalil.com

With clipped wings I’m laid to the test,
where the weary gets no rest.
Subject to psychological warfare to learn
if I can withstand others who grandstand
because they believe they own the land.
While my life is sustained by sleight of
hand – no it’s not magic – it’s a matter
of having a better plan.
You ask, what is the plan? Well, it’s to
know your enemy as you know yourself. Be
capable of adjusting to conditions you do
not trust; stay away from those who don’t
have your best interest at heart; and
always depart when all else is lost.
Get as much education as your brain can
stand; build a strategy even from a grain
of sand – heat applied to sand will make
glass – so turn up the heat and out your
ass to the task.
As they say, free your mind and your ass
will follow – as opposed to a closed mind
that is often hollow. Nothing on the
brain and time to waste is the place
where the devil makes grace – prepared to
feast on your life, like your enemy to
to ensure you stay on a path of strife.
What can be said when you know the
repercussions of your decision?
A matter of acknowledging a reality not
of my choosing, and yet not claiming its
name. A prisoner of colonial consciousness
the farce of it, not claiming its name for
all the shame that strains the brain, that
hurts the heart and stirs the soul in a
dark place, in haste to escape.
However, my light ignites the night and puts
shadows in convulsions, as death creeps on
my illumination, footsteps moving from the
past in slow motion, the turning back to
darkness incremental reaction to revolution.
The future beholds the enlightened, as earth
emits magnetic gravity, holding down truths –
as is often said, truth crushed to the
earth will rise again.
And, again I Rise !
The defiant denial of the demented racist,
although my aspirations are chained to
steel bars as the grim reaper tests my
hope for tomorrow, unable to kill my
dreams.
I Rise !
Soaring to make a country a home of my
own embraced by a population in elation,
who identify themselves as free beings,
never to deny each other’s lives – to be.
I dream beyond M.L. King, for I seek to
redeem the scheme of Afrikan Kings from
Ahkenaton to Kwame Nkrumah, that Marcus
Garvey and Malcolm X claimed the pain
to demand the same.
For we know that Liberators freed their
minds of colonial consciousness!
Liberators freed their minds and grew
Wings !