elaine brown

Alicia Keys

Okay, can I do one more? It's really quick
(Please, come on)
So he said: "Blow black mother, black mother"
He always announce the title and say
"black mother"
This is rap, this is hip hop
this is all that, from the street
Poetry from the street

Black mother, I must confess that I still breathe
Though you are not yet free
What could justify crying start
Forgive my cowards heart
But blame me not for sheepish me
While we sleeping in a deep-deep sleep
And I be hazed and dazed and
Vipers fester in my hair
Black mother, I curse your drudging years
The rapes, heart-breaks, sweat, and tears
But I swear on siege night
Dark and gloom
A rose I'll wear to honor you
And when I fall the rose in hand
You will be free and I a man
for a slave of natural death who dies
can't balance out to two dead flies
I'd rather be without the shame
A bullet lodged within my brain, black mother