Broken Men

Journal Entry, March 2, 2021

I entered a poetry competition for black history month; it was a national contest that paid $20,000. You could only imagine what that would do for a struggling poet. Especially since we're living in a Dead Poets Society, our only poets are now false prophets in the pursuit of profit. Poets used to be the sounding board of our reality, a voice for the oppressed. Life was poetry in motion.

Gil Scott Heron once said, "The Revolution will not be Televised," but that was a different Era. The poet today is muzzled, no longer sought after as the reflection of the human condition. The truth has become subjective and tied to limited perspectives. So I wanted to choose a powerful poem that transcended time and History. I started going through my small black notebook to find something historical and politically fueled. I chose a poem called "Broken Men" for the poetry contest because Frederick Douglass inspired it.

Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, social reformer, statesman, orator, and writer. He managed to escape slavery in Maryland and then became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in New York and Massachusetts. He gained fame from his long speeches and his sharply focused antislavery writings. To pay homage to such an inspiring figure, I knew the passion I put into this poem had to be unique because it came from my heart, reality, and pain.

Today, the competition's curators reached out, letting me know that I won, but it will officially announce the winner on March 12, 2021. It won because I took Frederick Douglass's quotes and stitched them to the seams of this poem. It carried the burdens of my culture like a weighted bulletproof vest that deflected societal happiness. His powerful words align with the pain of reality fused with past and present in America. It only highlights how History is frozen for those chosen to suffer under these constraints.

I wasn't comfortable sharing this poem because it reminds me of a family member I've lost to police brutality. 2020 was a whirlwind as the Black Lives Matter movement took the world by storm. I know many have their perception of the organization and the hashtag, but it is a reality that black lives endure daily. Justice may be blind, but why is it that she also doesn't hear black pain nor speak the truth of that struggle. Since no one wants to self-reflect, I hoped this poem would allow others to feel my words and provide a raw perspective.

This is "Broken Men":

At times I feel like Frederick Douglass.

With too much Substance

"It's easier to build strong children than to repair Broken MEN."

Since it's a White Man's world, I'll play the TOKEN FRIEND.

A Caged Bird that's never seen an Open PEN.

But "The Whitemans Happiness cannot be purchased by Black Misery."

Complicated confiscated through Pockets of History.

Appropriated Violated in Books translated Biblically.

Maturation of Degradation, NOW our struggle is a Mystery.

But "The soul within me no man can degrade."

And I've looked in CANES eyes feeling Betrayed.

While a Menace to Society is how I'm Portrayed

In AMERICAN HISTORY, I'm 12 Years a Slave

"I didn't know I was a slave until I couldn't do what I wanted"

Until these Ghosts started to HAUNT with Burnt Crosses

Now were chained to the DOLLAR, Slave Masters turned Bosses.

I'm just Sick and Tired, of Feeling Sick and Tired, -- FUCKING EXHAUSTED.

I feel like I'm trapped in that "Black Museum."

I was sitting on the couch while the TV is a Mausoleum.

This MEDIA War between RACES in this American Coliseum

Make America Great Again -- RACISMS CARPE DIEM

When will we learn "That which is inhuman cannot be divine."

Can we Judge the Judicial Systems Justice for being blind?

Runaway Jury's only see pigmentation fits the CRIME.

A black child dies when a cop's bullets split the Spine.

Watch it play on the news while the Media twist the MIND.

Death is the Cousin of Sleep that Slits the Wrist of TIME

Now we see blood on the leaves and blood at the Roots.

The American diet has always consisted of Strange Fruits.

The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration is the same Noose.

And I see so many people comfortable with the LIE

That it's easier to Blame TRUTH.