Reparations Now

Take up the White Man's burden-
Examine and take heed
Of the trauma you've inflicted
To pacify your greed.
Put sack cloth on, and ashes.
Rend your garments. Fast.
Mourn your spawn of misery,
Face your blackened past.

Take up the White Man's burden-
Uncover every vile
Fable you've concocted
To blanket your denial.
Rethink the scent of jasmine
In the evening dews and damps.
What you Christened as plantations
Were, in fact, slave labor camps.

Take up the White Man's burden-
Delve into the lies,
The depths of your transgression,
There's no need to be wise-
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
You took another's profit
And made his sweat your gain.

Take up the White Man's burden-
Know the measure of your sin:
To theorize thy neighbor
By reflections from her skin.
To see but hue in human,
But be blinded to the whole –
Is worse than any eye disease,
A cancer of the soul.

Take up the White Man's burden-
Unweave the rebel flag.
What you deemed benevolence
Was arrogance in drag.
Recall those "sullen peoples",
The row they had to hoe.
See through your self-deception
And pay the debt you owe.

Take up the White Man's burden-
Have done with childish fun.
Man up to your transgressions.
Repair what you've undone.
Comes now, to search your conscience,
Comes pounding in your ears,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgement of your peers!

New Poems

• "Battle Hymn of the Republic, Indeed"
• "Ode to a Banana"
• "Moving on After 1/6"
• "Hug"
• "Map-less Monarchs"
• "I am Such a Rich Man"
• "Beatitude with Attitude"
• "The Cross and the Lynching Tree Rap"
• "The Nudist Nun"
• "Sonnet 19"
• "Reparations Now"
• "Hoping I'm Wrong"
• "Bird Feeder"
• "Pete and Henry"
• "Nero: A Rap for Republicans"
• "Croissant"
• "Mandela"
• "The New Jim Crow"
• "The Wire"
• "Why Socialism?"

From By Heart

• "Ahiti"
• "As Some Fertile Seed"
• "Greed Screed"
• "I Sing the Ass"
• "Lying Lost Among Your Arms"
• "Now Thou Art Two and Twenty"
• "Sweet Smellin Woman"
• "This World"
• "Train Wreck"
• "Truth and Parable"
• "Why This Itch This Yen"
• "You"

Some Earlier Poems

• "Al and Bob"
• "The Lonely Puddle"
• "Ode to a Bagel"
• "The Rose"
• "Sardinia"
• "When Love's Liqueur"

Audio Recordings

• "Abu Ghraib"
• "Things About Kings"