Hey there Insighters, it’s a pleasure to be back with you all again. I was recently on a social media hiatus for the past week, working on the poetry book from day to night. Rest assured, ‘My So-Called Quarantine’ is still on track to be released June 12th, 2020!

Admittedly, I really needed to zero-in on exactly what I was feeling to give the book that assured sense of finality. Nonetheless, I’m feeling very perturbed and anxious about all the chaos that’s currently happening around us.

In particular, I reflect on the surging and explosive acts of racism and discrimination currently plaguing the Unites States. The continued, unlawful manslaughter of so many of my people is a lurid indication of how unjust the world we live in still happens to be. Likewise, how much genuine change is needed to create a world where all of us as human beings are treated equally.

It’s 2020 and still, Black people (among other races) are expected to remain enslaved to systems whose means of oppressing us have only slightly shifted to subtlety. However, this sense of “subtlety” is as fragile as the egos of those hellbent on discriminating against us.

And over the past couple of days, we’ve witnessed how it only takes a second for that so-called subtlety to morph into full-blown, overt hatred. Indeed, BLACK LIVES MATTER and HUMANITY MATTERS.

We’ve all been consciously snatched from the void to change and impact this world for the better. But as we all know, each human beings possesses some degree of free-will (some sadly more than others).

That said, as a young, Black creative from The Bahamas, I found it imperative to release this poem from the book. It wasn’t the next release planned, but I think the moment calls for it.

Therefore, with the intention of providing hope in these times of hellfire, here’s “MANY A NIGGA/GOODBYE NIGHT” from my upcoming poetry book ‘My So-Called Quarantine’, available June 12th, 2020.

“MANY A NIGGA”

Creating a life worthwhile, bursting through ghetto seams
Beating out circumstances, making it to his dreams
Having bruddas back home, making it to the team
No more eating cornflakes using Carnation cream
Dreaming is one thing, but life is harder than it seems
But from beginning to middle, there’s an end to the means
And for you to beat the heat, you have to press through the steam

Many a nigga uttered that they’d make it real big
Before leaving their mother with another hole to dig
Many a nigga uttered that they’d be a millionaire
But why your parents at the morgue waiting for your body to clear?
Many a nigga uttered that they’d never go missin’
Yet you never get visits in Her Majesty’s Prison
Gangbang with Jack and Jill
Sentenced to Fox Hill
While your favorite baby mama gives y’all son to the streets
Rest assured he’ll join his daddy in a couple of weeks

When did all go wrong?
Who sung the swan song?
When did the window of opportunity graze the windowpane?
Well if you want, let’s take a journey down ole memory lane

You were eight years old
With a heart rose gold
But you were called a conch
And it certainly stunk
Because it made you frown
Your chocolate skin so brown
They told you put dem books down
Because reading’s for clowns
And in this town, shit really goes down
We use guns and not words to get the message across
You thought all the education was gonna make you a boss?
“Stop speaking proper English, that’s White people shit!”
“You think you better than us?”
“I’ll knock you down in a bit!”
Stop writing dem stories, stop tellin’ dem tales
Your father wasn’t nothing, so you’re destined to fail

And sadly enough, you listened to their lies
You traded books for guns and those guns to die
To see you gone too soon is just another goodbye
Now everybody asking the good Lord “WHY?!”
Many a nigga uttered to each other somehow
They really wished they had a shooting star right now
Many a nigga uttered screams to the big, night sky
Because thinking about society made many a nigga cry

And this is why you should’ve never bowed down at their feet
They were stripping you of everything that made you unique
And I pray the next king won’t let this green Earth down
Because many a nigga wished they still wore their crown

Ashes to blackness and negro to night

“GOODBYE NIGHT”

In my mind lives a multiverse of intricate thoughts
Some creepy, some sweet, some flaming-red hot
In my mind there’s ammunition of troubling woes
It can “ra-ta-ta-tah” all of my foes

In the sky there lies a divine universe
Where stars tells secrets to each other in reverse
They whisper of human existence rehearsed
That we should be headed toward equality and infinite worth
I chortle at that their sayings, knowing my part
Rupturing the status quo for the sake of the art

In the moon lies the strength of a thousand gods
Of monsters, of men, of haunting facades
It hangs over this world in pure luminosity
Cleansing our souls of aimless animosity

And I know, the night’s a conflictive period of time
You start overthinking every second on the dime
But the night is also a healing moment in time
It empowers us to make Swticha from all of life’s limes

And though this time may be rather reclusive
There’s no need for your thoughts to remain so exclusive
For there’s assurance in thoughts when they become inclusive
So in this time, while being less excusive
Let’s heal ourselves and each other from all things abusive

Speak life, speak love, live in your truth
Spread light, spread hope, to the old and the youth
Carry out the instructions the universe has dealt you
Don’t get sucked into the void with the thoughts that melt you
Cause one day we’ll be back, having sewn up the rift
But until then, use this uncertainty as a gift

Tomorrow awaits you as it does everyday
Whether it’s clear, lukewarm, or clandestinely gray
We now look to dawn as the night peacefully fades away
With the hope that normalcy’s return is closer than yesterday

‘My So-Called Quarantine’ is available for purchase, June 12th, 2020. Exclusively on https://www.introverted-insight.com/

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