13/30: UnConditioned

I was born red
with a head
full of curly hair

…a Black Footed Cherokee…

quiet as breezes flirting with sequoias

skin drank the sunlight
thirsty for heritage

…a radiant African…

uneasily slaved to shackles of stereotypes

hips rotate to rhythms
mortal ears strain to be kissed by

ancestors play ceremonial drums for me

…a warrior of a West Indian…

accent punctuated slightly with island flavor

culture dripping from tongue

spirit is a melting pot
of seasoned attempts
to make me forget
my people

colonize my ambitions

march my beliefs single-file off of a cliff
lemming-like
blinded by the norm

…but, I see you

try as you might to contain me

box my determination
and ship me off

I will return in nightmares stamped “postage due”

neglect to declare my value

…you could never afford me

need I remind you,
doors were never opened to you?

raped your way into my blood stream

labeled me “Black sheep”
then kissed me, cousin

how dare you proclaim your son 3/5ths of a man
while your skeletons dance proudly across high school exams?

passing down notions
that we are nothing more
than dirt scraped off the boot
of American war heroes

…trample over our Trail of Tears

keep white-washing this nation
…the melanin bleeds through

you showed us to surgically scalp
then screamed, “Savages”

burned down my villages

molested
…murdered
……and pillaged

all in the name of “religion”?

wipe the massacre from my face
…I desire to be cleansed

please baptize me “civilized”

shampoo my thoughts…
…condition my heart…
……comb through insecurities
……… brush doubts into submission…

make me over
into who I was
before you decided

you were God…