What Happened to Us

Here I was, thinking that the laws had changed things,

Looking upon the desires of my beating heart,

But found not satisfaction.

When I thought the war was long gone and slavery buried,

I lost it again,

Searching for my heritage as promised by the guts in my bones, the tune of sanity and the wisdom I once heard,

Then again it was gone.

I would be damned to say we found peace in Cold War,

I would be damned,

I would be damned to believe that there is a future,

I would be damned,

I would be damned to buy into the stories we hear in this new day.

Oh! How I remembered when we had freedom to move,

Freedom to think,

Freedom to accomplish our plans,

Oh! How I remembered how much fun it was going to school,

The competitions, and the lessons learned,

The riddles and jokes, even the dry ones made sense to someone,

Oh! How I remember seating by the tree listening to the tales my grandmother would tell,

Although it seemed annoying at the time, I always wanted more.

There is a child out there who believes that we would rise,

There is a child out there who thinks politics is selfish,

There is a child out there who is suffering because of the choices we made in the present,

There is a child, there is just one child,

The only child that would bring us together again.

The values of our culture has changed from what we once knew it to be,

The child that would prostrate now shAkes the hands of his father,

The child that would run into the house at the sight of his fathers car, now smokes on the street,

The father who would caution his child, now drinks beer with him on the same table,

The same look for respect and has found none.

Feel free to be displeased,

Your opinion was never heard, not for once,

When we had slavery we looked for freedom,

Now we have freedom, it feels slavery was a better choice,

We have always been young to take the step,

Now we are older we are scared to climb the stairs,

Feel free to be displeased.

The Nation strength is broken,

The Nation law makers are crippled,

How can a child of 3 say he wants to crack bones?

And yet no one is saying anything about this,

Oh! I see, they are all there for the money!!!

Of course, this shouldnʼt be something new to us.

-Rubenkells-