"You Promised Me" By Naomi Daugherty

You Promised Me

I feel lighter than money

cool, im sippin' it

----the cool say

i dreamed a dream of cool passion

and moon scent

delivered in deliverance

i heal through membrance

"we couldn't see the stars

so we threw up our own" he said

Now we got our own

killin' our own- i read

Books explainin’ why the crooks

be crooks

and why my people's smiles stay

crook

ed

We be hooked in

the imagery of

the broke-in

that's that reality tv shit

messin’ with our perception

thinkin' real is

a cold bed of

wanders tryin' to find a found dream-

hell

haunted on the backs of open legs

and hands throwin' up

callin' oneself supreme

uncommonly common is the new theme

Frank Ocean said it was a one man's cause

so he must not mess with that one man's laws

And i be scorn again

be that “angry black woman”

because i can't become

the remedy of a broken reality

that shit dead-

What if i shot the sheriff

for all the misbled blood

and hung him high

enough to see

dead little girl's panties

danglin' on trees

and bodies being broke open

by aimless cylinders ablaze

led by lost thoughts

trailed by troubled haze

and mother's hearts falling

quicker than running teardrops

while their worries run faster

tryin' to make way

And who said Sodom and Gomorrah

was all that damn bad

i much rather live amongst free love

than the land of the dead-

And aint that where we is

with all this self-denying finger pointing

hatred?

We be sippin' on that maddening world-

What she say?

"i don't hear [shit] but maddening screams

and the soft strains of death..."

You promised me…

a freedom

‘pose to insure some “blessing of liberty”

said if i agree i'd be insured “domestic tranquility”

the best lie was the “promotion of general welfare”

because the lawless lawmakers

don't care none.

Thus, I've created a new promise

deviated from a blood country's platform norm

aint no need to confirm or follow

my promise aint ratified by the heartless and hollow

merely a claim for my stolen dignity

So, forget your promise

I'll claim my own free.

BRIEF BIO

Naomi S. Daugherty is a poet and activist from Chicago who promotes and practices militant compassion and radical self-love. As a senior studying Communication and Women Studies at The University of Missouri, Naomi is the founder of SPEAK Community Theater, an organization that prompts youth to use art for social change.

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