(New Poem)

Amendments of Exclusion

1.      Congress cannot stop a football player from kneeling, but the NFL can black ball

him like the last shot in a game of pool. He sticks it to the government

while the league sticks him under the bus, under the luggage and road kill

blood-kissed on dying tires.

2.      We can license our weapons, but how can blacks  we do the same if murdered

before reaching for the card? Just because we own a gun

doesn’t make us suspect to the latest news coverage.

3.      Whether she, he, them or all have penises or not, with long hair or short braids, inspired

by Caitlyn Jenner, the decathlon winner, or Laverne Cox who speaks not to force,

but free, one should be able to fight for the country instead of the courtesy to have rights

like most heterosexuals with acceptable pronouns.

4.      Some POC young man has a freshly washed car with large rims, slim tires. His hat fits around the crown of his head, keeps his pit bulls fed, along with his children and wife. Cops wait for him to slip up have cause to raid, but unlike Santa Claus, every piece of coal with cash has to be doing something illegal. The next best thing is to wait for him to drive down some highway 85, turn on the lights and doubt his freedom under amendment #2, even if the safety is on, tucked under the seat , wrapped in registration. 

5.      OJ “didn’t kill”, but he did steal his trophies of college day thrills, along with someone with intent to harm, so I guess second time’s a charm.

6.      Did Kalief Browder get a chance? I’ll wait for an answer.

7.      Watching Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, and Caught in Providence reminds me there’s entertainment in watching us fight over lunch money.  Bullies use to take it back in the day. Now, you can sue for it.

8.      So this was written before Emmett Till, right? Okay, just checking.

9.      It appears that we always exist in the grey area. Unknown rules do apply, such as owning your own car, having a house paid off, owning the masters to your music catalog and speaking about injustice while dribbling a basketball, salary capped off at $154 million. If you ask me, if the world is watching, why not say something heavy?

10.  “Power to the people” wasn’t a fab, but a fact. We have more of it than we believe for even Jesus said we "will do even greater things.”

11.  Living in a different state may do you harm when seeking retribution, but being in a different state of mind when choosing to shoot choir members in South Carolina or going postal during a Batman film will benefit you in court. Just keep quiet, dress clean, and act like what happened wasn’t beyond your medical history.

12.  Don’t be surprised if this amendment is longer than Trump’s presidency and reign over Twitter. Then again, don’t be surprised of the contrary.

13.  One out of five black men are locked away in modern slave ships prison. “I’m not black, I’m OJ” may have worked for the Heisman winner, but not for Jameel McGee and Tyra Patterson.

14.  Born on American soil, you are justified, whether you shoot a young man being dark in a dark alley or buy drugs from the same street. Maybe it gave you clearance to remind Rodney King that one should submit to a slew of batons and black shoes to the face. Traveling through America’s birth canal of sex, violence and all the illegal in between, we inherit the sins of our presidents smeared on an intern's dress, yet only the white chosen are omitted from torture and taint.

15.  We were informed to vote drastically for Hillary, but here we are.

16.  Even Wesley Snipes couldn’t act his way out of this one. If they will not grant us reparations, they definitely will disregard allowing us tax-free privileges.

17.  I read that Hiram Revels almost made it first 149 years ago. His effort maxed for him to become President of Alcorn College. The closer we got to making history, the quicker others fought to keep it Caucasian the same.

18.  “A party ain’t a party” until the juice is chased. America finally realized that if you want to up the citizen participation, increase the tumbler’s precipitation (you like that?). If you down the alcoholic restrictions , men in power will not be able to rape and rule, blame it on the (enters Jamie Foxx’s hit from 2008, but in no way supports the decisions of Don Draper) .

19.  Now, if we’re going by this list with an all-inclusive mindset, we were granted rights to vote before all women.  Our votes are still undervalued, causing women to catch up perpetually.

20.  Speaking of 20, January 20^th, 2009. Our expectations will forever be higher than normal. We can do all things through Barak God who strengthens us.

21.  So it is beyond law for 21 to be the winning number for everything except car rentals. Let me ask this—if I’m of age with a closed  bottle of Crown Royal in a rented car, going the max speed limit on a local highway at the fresh age of 25, will I go to jail get pulled over?

22.  If Bill had given us four more years... 

      Wait, if Barak had given us four more years...

      Maybe Kanye might have a chance. Never mind.  After recent events, I rather have The Terminator Arnold run and win by having my vote. It’ll be as political as the Oscars, so wearing a nice suit, for him, will be as easy as bench pressing on Venice Beach.

23.  I hate math, but here we go. 2 x 50=100. That’s easy. So why was it hard to convince one hundred people that given one boy playing man in a white, fun house was less beneficial than their worst nightmare electing a strong woman with opposing views?

24.  Imagine how much more we would have to fork over to vote for a president that would ignore our existence anyway before 1939.

25.  JFK was shot twice, leaving his ideas splattered across the trunk of a black Lincoln. His wife stood in her blood-stained attire as Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in, flying above the press and conspiracies. 2pac and Biggie are removed from the black movement, yet no suspects are found, let alone replacements. Now that J. Cole, Chance The Rapper, and Kendrick Lamar are streaming consciousness through our iTunes and Spotify, are we still looking?

26.  After high school, we’re old enough to vote, but too young to understand its lack of impact when you care too much for the people, not the millionaires with gold cigar cutters and excess tickets for The Masters.

27.  Pay raise? We don’t see much of that and if we do, the margins are small. We are given fifty cents, but not a chance at management. Maybe I’m the best supervisor recorded at my previous place of employment, but if my dreads aren’t  cut by the time of my interview, it won’t be my experience that hinders me. Maybe these were written in our favor.  

      What can we mandate to prevent these animals men from realizing how similar we are?

      If that’s the case, success was achieved.