What is free?/ Can JoDavid find it in the academy/ can’t look at folk in the eyes/ my confidence is gone with the wind/ and folk don’t give a damn/ liberate my mind from a banking system/ got me locked in a safe/ feelin’ safe/ but that’s a false sense of security/ such a pity/ cain’t critically assess this mess/ I done drank America’s Kool Aid twice over/ gotta be hard/ gotta be a strong black man/ gotta be paranoid/ ‘cause I’m taught to figure/ that everybody around me can only see me as a “nigga”/ not JoDavid/ “Jolowmight(x) Cervantes” mah (my) alias/ and I get so tired of identity politics for the sake of kicks/ took my pick/ and the deck was already stacked/ had to play ‘em anyway/ ‘cause I can’t go back in time/

what is free?/ bell hooks speakin’ in my ear/ got so many planks/ so easy to give in to fear/ to rage/ free is not just releasing the shackles/ but to tackle the reasons for the shackles in the first place/ oh such a proclivity/ we humans have for idolatry ego and hubris/ call ‘em synonyms/ call it sin/ call it whatever you like/ jus’ don’t act like it don’t exist/ ooh… my grammar is so terrible/ so low class/ suppose if I reflected on the ontological quandary of prophecy/ vis-à-vis/ our epistemological limitations/ in light of theological equations/ Am I essentializing?/ don’t find that surprising/ told you I done drank the Kool Aid/ and made it my own/ after all Kool Aid is just the mix/

we add the water and sugar/ flavor it to our taste/ choke it down/ taste so good/ hurt so good/ freedom’s no good/ without weapons of mass destruction/ this is such a biting critique/ but I AIN’T DONE/ ‘cause my folk done told me ‘bout a friend late in the midnight hour/ who got all power/ wrapped up in love/ in patriarchy/ in liberation/ in discrimination/ all at the same time/ freeing our minds/ takes too much time/ and I would rather let others do the thinking/ while I do the drinking/ never linking/ putting two and two together/ education, as an act of liberation/ for the trials and tribulations that we are all facing/ now that’s free/ let my gran’mama tell it/ life will process all of us/ to get free from this mess and being free to this MC is to change the tempo and vamp the melody/ and switch genres…

Cuz we just can’t have it the same man…

This is for Jonathan, Steve, and Modest Mouse… Thanks Isaac Brock

It came together so fast/ the right time met the wrong time/ they seized the opportunity/ to join forces with space/ I paced back and forth/ unwilling to enter but was drawn in by gravity’s center/ and my participation/ was both afterthought and indispensable/ it’s consequential to note that… despite my anthropocentrism/ I was barely one color in this saga’s prism/ and all I wanted was a cold glass of water/ but that decision hinged/ on concomitant factors/ and y’all know I’m just one little actor/ who made that glass? In what factory? Was it overseas, where underpaid workers aid in quarterly profits? Maybe I should think about another topic/ the water came from the sink from a pipe that was laid in the ground before I came around/ weren’t folk here before we came around? And now I see that ice cube gingerly floating/ how many patents are in a freezer, ice trays, Brita Filters and pitchers?/ get the picture? My thirst drew me to the kitchen/ and then a light flickered/ remain hid…

Can’t Stop Baby, ya know it can’t stop/ Won’t Stop Brother ya know it don’t stop/ Don’t Stop Sister ya know it can’t stop…

CWDS