Tragedy

Oh say can you see life on my side of the fence

Been bench pressing, the oppression and haven’t sat up since

Hence,

The day I was conceived

Mom on her knees to make a dollar, inherited her sin

On my third baby father

I been tryna holla I’m a Queen

But my actions show different

How I rip and run the streets living a life reminiscent

Of my father’s

Rolling stone with no hat

Left my children with my mother

So I could lie on my back

A victim of an attack

I never saw coming

Heard them screaming for me to come home

But I just kept running

Trying to be what they told me

And be what I saw

On the tv, I idolized the images

Before I could crawl

And before I could speak they condemned me to this life

Taught me everything I know

Except how to be a wife

And how to be a mother

Sat still and kept my hands folded

While the teacher taught me lies

And claimed my history

Ain’t no mystery

why I’m jaded

A crooked game and I played it

Never told it was rigged

Working on my fourth kid

When all I was doing was searching for Daddy

He told me to call him that

While he was hitting from the back

Couldn’t stand to see my face,

But I still was surprised

When he walked right passed me

Carrying the baby with his eyes

This no lie

They say I’m bitter but really I’m just numb

They think I’m dumb

But if I was, I never would have survived

Although I’m the living dead

Got nothing to offer

So I barter

my soul

Hit the pole every hour

Nikki taught me about dollars

And how I should get it

How I spend it

On hair that flows down my back

Black and cursed is what they called me

Birthed by America the Great

Plates are barren in my house

No spouse

and no structure

A ruptured heart within this cavity

The great tragedy

of a forgotten child

of poverty.

-Hatshepsut Amun Re