Remembering past struggles don't mean a thing
If you don't prepare for the future
To get what it will bring
So it may hurt hearing your color don't always fit
Keep pushing ahead collect every bit
Put them together learn what you can
Then maybe you'll find
The word can't can be turned into can

*****************************************

*The Projects*

Many floors a ghetto tall
Stench from the elevator
Rise against the graffiti walls
Windows broken out
That let in the winter's cold
Smells of many foods cooking
Filtering down the hall
Sounds of contempt
Seeping through the walls
The elderly afraid
To step beyond the sill
Young girls stomachs filled with baby's
Who should abstained or taken the pill
Many bricks high
Contain this atmosphere of despair
People rushing up and down each level
But few getting anywhere

*****************************************

*Misguided Anger*

Tempers are mounting
Funds are low
Bumping into each other
Cause there's no place to go
Using the "N" word expressing your pain
Really solves nothing
Or a good way to train
There's nothing on TV
Conversation is nil
No books worth reading
Kids won't be still
Looking at each other
Often in disgust
Tomorrow may be better
So today let's not fuss

*****************************************

Some say the Willie Lynch Letter is bogus not real
They say it's written by someone working in the field
But how would they know the key player
Would be the source for all that's good and bad
How did they know it would work
As effectively as slavery already had
Regardless if it's real or not
Being real would only say it's authentic
The realness of it's message
Are the effects on the black mans dynamics

Adapted from book of poems Looking at Ourselves
© 2004 by T. Duffy Afro Staff Writer

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