In the Name of God
By Jamil Ruffin
We lie. We cheat and we steal.
We condoned slavery and we kill.
We promote inconsideration
of how – other people feel.
And we do it
in the Name of God.
We discriminate against women
for their being that gave us birth.
We oppress them with scriptures
in our beliefs that Man iz First.
And we do this too
in the Name of God.
We Jews call them Gentiles.
We Christians – call them heathens.
We Muslims – call them Kafer
then rob and murder them after
in the Name of God.
We killed them – in the Name of God.
We adopt religious persuasion
then practice country invasion.
We tear down a “civilized” nation
in the Name of God.
We disregard humanity
and destroy the human family
then justify our insanity –
All in the Name of God.
We formulate documents
for racial tension
and social friction.
We take other people’s land
and set up our geographical restrictions.
So now when the Native peoples want something
they got to ask us for permission
cause we stole their inheritance
in the Name of God.
Black Goddess
By Jamil Ruffin
She reminds me of Black joy
Black pride
And Black – Excellence
Her headwrap makes her look like
Royalty
Cultural – Elegance
She reminds me of Kwanzaa
The 6th Principle
And the – Elements
She’s Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire
Her body iz the temple
Divine – Residence
She takes my
Mind to the peak of Kilimanjaro
Makes me feel higher
Than Mt. Everest
While other’s beauty is based on cosmetic adjustments
Hers is based on
Nature and – Intelligence
When it’s said we come from kings and queens
Her blood stream screams
Here is-evidence
The type that burns sage
Light candles
And take baths with herbal leaves
To repel
Spiritual – Decadence
She prays
And pour libations to the Ancestors
Divine – Reverence
And when it’s time to extol Black men and Black children
She does it with Gratitude
Without hesitation
To claim
She’s anything
Less than Black goddess
Would be – Negligence
To claim she’s anything
Less than Black Goddess
Would be – Negligence
This Romantic-less Reality
By Jamil Ruffin
I’m in a 3-dimensional prison
in here — watching lock-up shows on television
Then when I look out the windows
I see those
barbed wire gates that keep me fenced in.
Ain’t no escaping this — Romantic-less
reality
This casualty
of a life
Caught in the center of cell blocks
where Michelangelo couldn’t chisel me out a wife.
in here — Female companionship iz but a dream
a mirage
where I long to behold her Face
and press my body against her body
and wrap my arms around her waist
tellin’ her “You’ve been the softest and safest place I been in years”
hoping she’ll erase the images of stabbings
and blood puddles on lifeless tiers.
Replacing memories of handcuff bruises
with bridesmaids and wedding rings
Starving
because I refuse to eat hot dogs that’s the color
of lima beans
So I crave real food
and real love
that understand
confined in a place where — every kiss — on the lips iz
equivalent to contraband
Haunted by stories of infidelity
of women marrying men in prison then breaking their pledge
cuz they’re tortured by absent bodies
and suffer in lonely beds
Ain’t no escaping this — Romantic-less
reality
This casualty
of a life
Caught in the center of cell blocks
where Michelangelo couldn’t chisel me out a wife.
Like My Cell
By Jamil Ruffin
I’m becoming like the –
Cellblock walls that entrap me
Hard exterior
Hollow inside
A lifeless existence
Void of happiness –
Or laughter.
I feel like a lifeless body
like the female slave being raped by her master
sunken in space
paralyzed in time
metal bars mirroring my soul
steel barriers on my mind.
I’m becoming like –
Solitary confinement
With no windows of light of illumination
Isolated from nature’s love
And too distant from consideration.
My personality has died
And became cement
Like the ceiling
I’m becoming like the
Cell block walls that entrap me in the winter
Cold – without feeling.
Unattached to the world beyond me
Suffering in silence
Without a voice.
Rey – like the painted door
Unable to shut out the negative noise.
Flushing down emotional toxins
Like the toilet in my cell.
But with the force of my cell’s toilet
I flushed down my sense of humor as well
Rendering me a blinking corpse
Spiritless body
An empty shell
Stuck – like the wielded bed to the floor
Inability to move beyond this hell.
What goes on inside me
Are like walls that cannot tell
While others are becoming like their fathers
I’m becoming like my cell.
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