FORGOTTEN YOUNG (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
There was a time when,
We didn’t produce blind men.
Because the elders taught,
The youth the things they ought.
To know and grow from,
The scars we earned when young.
Not today
… Read the rest
RACIST HOLLYWOOD (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
We’ve forgotten that Hollywood began
By promoting the Ku Klux Klan.
Its first blockbuster presentation,
The film The Birth of a Nation.
That dehumanized Black men,
Portraying them as all
“Yo my dude
“what’s up with you?
“Looks like you got
“something to do.”
I do and its got
everything,
To do with
trying to bring.
You on board
with his movement right here,
But it takes getting
over what
MLK (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
From the outset
a word about MLK,
He was NOT assassinated
by James Earl Ray.
If you investigate
you will find,
The King family won a lawsuit
back in ’99.
Where they
… Read the rest
LITTLE PEOPLE (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Eyes of wonder
taking everything in,
Breakfast dribbling
down your chin.
Tiny fingers grasp
everything in reach,
The world your classroom
eager to teach.
That smile of yours
had me duped,
You
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT/TORTURE (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
I spent over 20 years
in the hole,
Watching humans
lose their souls.
Into sheer madness
many descended,
At their own hands
many lives ended.
It’s not as though
officials
WAKANDA FOR WHAT (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Wakanda for what?
A comic book drama
To keep our eyes wide shut.
A caricature
of Black struggle against
the most heinous conditions,
Replacing our actual history
with animated fiction.
Lowndes County
… Read the rest
2020 VISION (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
A pandemic
brought things
to a halt,
No vaccine no cure
no clues how caught.
Closest of kin
closest friends
passing on no warnings,
Like instant nightfall
from a bright sunny morning.
Shelter
… Read the rest
STRANGER FRUIT (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Compact spaces
Contain a stranger fruit,
Dark bodies crammed together
Like grapes with no roots.
Mass incarceration
Razor wire plantations,
Confining people
Of oppressed nations,
Chicano AmerIndian
New Afrikan Haitian.
A process of
