Click here to listen to Blackman Preach read this poem.

HOPE

One minute of hope

mesmerized

by the street children’s

games

riding their bikes

playing

tag

chasing the girls

trying

to fight

like studying flashcards

childhood memories were coming

like lightning & thunder

in one clap

I am in a size five running out of sight.

Cars were easing around corners

as if

they were jet magazines

with the beauty of the week

on wax.

Yeah that’s my car!

Nah man—that’s my car!

as if

every kid repeated

this same tune

everwhere

swearing an oath

to brotherhood

as the girls

played jack

swearing their oath

to sisterhood.

Slam bam!

there’s another night

as our moms avalanched

her echoes of

get your ass in the house

or else.

Everybody know the routine

don’t get in trouble

or that will divide & conquer us all

so

same bat time same bat place.

The preceeding poem is included in Blackman Preach's self published chapbook titled, "The State of the Ghetto Address."

Click here to listen to Blackman Preach read this poem.

BlackCommentator.com Spoken Word Columnist, Poet Blackman Preach (Cedric T. Bolton), is a poet (spoken word artist) and producer, born in Pascagoula, Mississippi and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. Cedric received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University and currently resides, with his wife, in Syracuse, New York.  He is the Founder of Poetic Black Fusion, a writers' workshop that provides access and opportunities to poets of African Ancestry living in Central New York.  He is also the co-founder of Voices Merging, a student-run poetry organization (spoken word) at the University of Minnesota that provides a social outlet for undergraduate students to develop as writers, network and express themselves on stage. He has been writing poetry for 14 years and is published in the Ethnic Student Center's Newsletter at Western Washington University, The Spokesman Recorder, and St. Cloud Times. Click here to contact Blackman Preach.