Yesterday

Me and my people…
We’ve lost our way.
We’ve forgotten what was done yesterday
To give us all we have today.
Me and my people, we joke laugh, and play.
But do we ever stop to reminisce,
Reminisce of yesterday.
Yesterday there was a struggle,
And our brothers acted more like brothers.
Yesterday we were all real, and no one was undercover.
Yesterday we had a dream,
And found the coal to make our steam.
Yesterday many of our brothers were hanging with the leaves.
But some things will never change, because I still feel “the man” hanging me.
And since we’re all brothers supposedly living in unity,
Why don’t you have this ring around your neck like me?
I thought we were fighting the same struggle.
But instead we fight one another.
And until we decide to become unified,
Willie Lynch will continue to live inside.
What his letter said it did,
That was keep us all divided.
United we stand divided we fall.
This has always been the rule of thumb.
Yesterday, today, nor tomorrow shall this policy succumb.
Divide, and conquer,
And conquer they did.
The white man kept us divided over 300 years.
Yesterday, we were forced upon division.
And to our dreadful cries no one listened.
Shackled on a boat to be shipped, and work in a white mans kitchen,
Or on his plantation in the fields cotton pickin’.
Yesterday, we were ripped from our homes,
And detached from our thrones,
To be placed in a land that to us was unknown.
Yesterday, we went from kings and queens in a black mans Africa,
To servants, and slaves in a white mans America.
Yesterday we were forced to build this nation on our backs.
But yesterday, today, nor tomorrow will we ever get credit for that.
Yesterday, we fought for freedom, and never looked back,
Despite our opposition, and the white man’s horrendous attacks.
Yesterday, they broke us down but could not keep us there.
We rose in the face of oppression, and gave it a bold stare.
Yesterday, today, nor tomorrow shall a black man be kept down.
Our limits exceed the sky though we started from the ground.
Yesterday, they paved the way, with there blood, sweat, and tears.
But many of us have forgotten this, as we proceeded through the years.
Yesterday, it was not uncommon for an Africans fate to be held in European hands.
Because they mistook themselves for God when they “discovered” an already discovered
land.
Yesterday, today, nor tomorrow will it be a man’s right to old another man’s fate.
As our masters strived to supersede the Lord we stayed strong and refueled our faith.
Yesterday we were strong.
Much stronger than today.
If only we had the same strength,
THE STRENGTH OF YESTERDAY.