Click here to listen to Blackman Preach read this poem.

LOOK HOW LONG

Look how long

look how long

Black man

the struggle still

 goes on.

HISTORICALLY

we’ve come around the block

more

than a household visiting friend

they may try to kill us

they may

they may try to deny us

they may even say there is no end

I will tell you there’s an end...

there is a end.

Look how long

look how long

Black woman

the crowned jeweled Queen

the mother of all roots

how can they deny

you

 who gave BIRTH

to them all

a Black beauty see

I can’t resist telling you

every day of your existence...

Look how long

 look how long

church

that we’ve denied Christ

has God denied you?

NO

Jehovah has been there all the time

on time

tho’ you have questioned Yahweh

in

Malcolm & Betty

circumstances

he has managed

to do you good—tho’

you have no clue

no idea

how he has blessed

you to see another day

another day…

Look how long

 look how long

LOOK!

How much longer

 is it going to take us

to get this thing right?

the human beings

that we have been called to be

that we have the audacity

of screwing it up

 not even fighting for what we

believe in

but

rather

fight each other

fight each other

check the record of time

look how long...

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.

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