Let Me Get This Straight

Reality Check Poetry

Let me get this straight

You expect to be able to

Enslave me

For decades

With ZERO accountability

Selling me

My body

My mind

My soul

My genetic material

My creations

My writing

My lyrics

My songs

My being

Abusing me every step of the way

In the most traumatic and torturous ways

Scapegoating me for the consequences

While elevating the perpetrators

The whole step of the way

Forcing me to work for free

For decades

From the age of 4

Full operative at the age of 7

Memories and experiences

Documented in popular songs and even movies

“So we never forget”

My handlers said

But you claim not to know me!

Decade after decade

Forced to work for a country

That claims not to know me

My own country

That refuses to protect my human rights

Or my children’s

Just like you did to my mother and father

And I had to grow up with that

But I’m just supposed to

“Move past it”

Because I am an “abomination”

According to your sickest deviants

Making all that money

While you give it all to extremists

Never even giving ME the credit

For my own accomplishments

Never once

Transferring

The money I worked for

The money I earned

The money I shed blood, sweat, and tears for

Directly to me

Instead giving it to the elite

Claiming they deserve what I produce

Because they are superior beings

And just a “slave”

I CAN’T EVEN GET COVID RELIEF!

But you can take ALL from me

And my family

CONSTANTLY!

UNRELENTINGLY!

BY EVERY POSSIBLE MEANS!

“Kill yourself”

You repeatedly tell me

But I’m the one who is “sick”

While you attack your own country?

GTFOH

You don’t know who I am!

Attacking us by any means

Decade after decade

Never ever once

Receiving any ounce of accountability

I’m your huckleberry

If everyone else is so damn afraid

To do anything

I wasn’t trained for nothing

Do you truly believe

I’m supposed to accept this

And say nothing

Do nothing

What kind of cool-aid are you drinking?

HONOR MY CONTRACT

UNDREDACT MY CREDENTIALS

UNREDACT MY EDUCATION

PAY ME WHAT YOU OWE ME

If you hadn’t continued to

Distribute

ALL the money I made

Along with my accomplishments

To the wealthy elite

Then my family and I

Would never have had to suffer

So many extremes

THIS ISN’T GOING AWAY

I’M NOT GOING AWAY

PAY ME WHAT YOU OWE ME!

You’ve taken ALL from me

Consistently

Decade after decade

And did the same

To my entire family

Generation after generation

But I’m the one who is “lazy”

“Crazy”

A “taker”

A “liar”

A “manipulator”

“Undeserving”

“Excuse maker”

YOU ARE THE ONES WHO OWE ME!

I haven’t been paid for what I have already done

But you take more and more

Giving nothing in return

Other than more abuse

Lies

Slander

Demands

Politicization

Propaganda

Attacks

Wealth transfers

You call this Democracy?

If you gave me 1 penny on every dollar you owe me

My children’s children’s children would forever be wealthy

DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I WILL JUST LOOK THE OTHR WAY?

That’s not how I was trained

Maybe you should have asked my handler about me

Before you let him escape all accountability

After all

The men who created the industrial military complex trained me

For a reason

Sure I am debilitated

But I’m no dummy!

Congressional Black Caucus Progressive Caucus UN Human Rights Amnesty International USA Library of Congress TIME Nat Geo Explorers