BOOK COVER Magazine - February 2014 | Page 11

Do You Understand? A Poem By Paul Patterson BLACK is realizing one’s mortality as a little kid. It’s walking home in fear the way Trayvon Martin did. It’s feeling the blows suffered by Rodney King The content of every song Marvin Gaye used to sing. It’s festivals in the parks and carnivals in the streets. Messages of war communicated through ancient drum beats. Black is the Funk of James Brown, it’s cruisin’ Boston, NYC, or the “A” Saturday night Cadillac down. Black is being watched constantly. The traffic light is a black thing! Black is as fierce as Angela Davis! It’s afros, braids and cornrows, fighting for what’s rightfully yours. Philosophy is not Greek, it’s a black thing. Black is as cool as Richard Roundtree in shaft, it’s every hip word and phrase you hear the epitome of cool. A hanging tapestry of dogs playing pool, and not being taught about your 40 acres and a mule in history class at school. The cultivation of land is a black thing. Black is the spirit of Harriet Tubman, It’s the creativity to make scraps a delicacy A.K.A Soulfood It’s surviving the game, the hunt! Dig….astrology too, is a black thing; as well as watching your entire family swing. Strange fruit indeed. Black is Tulsa’s Wall Street It’s as complex as Parliament misunderstood more than sir nose. It’s the new dominant chocolate city Atlanta GA and yes the atomic bomb project of yesterday is also a black thing. A black thing is the leadership of Huey P. Chuck Taylors, Dashiki’s, and fist picks. It’s holding court in the streets and at the supreme level…identifying with the letter“X, ”SlamDunkInYourFacePolitics! “Sit-ins,” are a black thing. A black thing is the frustration of the ghetto, represented by the lyrics of Public Enemy and K.R.S One.