Letter to My Unborn Child

This piece was written by me but with collective input from survey as well as group facilitation. The end of the poem takes a dramatic shift in tone and style—reflective of the group facilitated creation of poetry. This is meant to be a performance piece with crowd participation. Hope you enjoy.

“Poets observe, challenge, provoke, inspire.  Poetry penetrates imperial conscious because it can’t be controlled--poets can’t be controlled or silenced--poetry, visualization and imagery provide clarity of what that alternative vision can be...”Michael O.

---Written to be performed---

Letter to My Unborn Child

I apologize---apologize for bringing you into a world full of hate and pain
A world that has nothing waiting for you but disdain
You'll quickly learn it’s all a game that never intended to have your name
Running across the screen in big bright green letters-
Letter to my unborn child

Don’t worry that they won’t like your hair naturally
They'll criticize your hips that naturally
Sway in the wind like a tree to a small summer breeze
They'll tell you in so many words, so many images that your natural ain’t beautiful
Don’t worry that you won’t see yourself in main magazines or commercials representing you in your fullness
And don't sweat that you will see yourself time and time again in shackles and orange jumpsuits or dead in the streets

Shackles and jumpsuits and dead in the streets
My heart never stops moving to the beat
The beat of your heart in my young womb
Although my heart is full of gloom
And maybe doom as I read the letters of your name--
Letter to my unborn child

See our people occupy the streets
Drunken, drugged up, and pimped out
But Baby don’t worry
Cus the group I ride with are a pack of lions
I run with lioness who don’t stress on a kill
Because we killin institutional power that keeps our people oppressed
We killin ideology that says we can’t ever impress

Don’t apologize for who you are, understand who you are
And whose you are
Laugh my child, go ahead and laugh wild
Don’t fear life, love others and hate strife
See the beauty that lies within, and the beauty that has been
A part of your rich history that at times seems a great mystery
You are more than black in America, I urge you to explore the diaspora
But more than that, know that I am your hope
And my hope for you is a future other than the one I see
----
Alternate ending:
But more than that- know I am your hope
We talkin' bout-- liberation, restoration, and transformation

We seek to build community with our colleagues
We seek justice boldly and the abundance of it peacefully
We seek equity
Yea yea yea, We talkin' bout-- liberation, restoration, and transformation

We are excited to be united, we seek prosperity for the common good
We talkin' bout-- liberation, restoration, and transformation
Yea that jubilee type of liberation, restoration, and transformation
That jubilee that challenges status quo, affirms our value and worth, energizes the masses and prepares us to change that future we are hopeful for!

~Letter to my unborn child~
1-17-2014

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