Mask
Suzi Zimmerer
We Are the Youth of a Nation
Anderson Aven Cook
We are the grandchildren of the slaves you could not break.
Brought from distant shores, we made this land our home.
She said that we stepped ’n fetched a country
And wrote the blues in screams.
A white house now stands, the antithesis of our genesis.
Are we not worthy of a legacy?
We are still chained.
We are the ambition of blood lines aberrant in their old age.
We are the grandchildren of the slaves you could not break.
Brought to our knees, we found our footing, and with time, took our seats.
They say, but sugar, it was our submission
That made your world go round.
Signs demanding subjugation, inflaming our identities.
Are we not a legacy?
We still scream.
We are the ambition of blood lines aberrant in their old age.
We are the grandchildren of the slaves you could not break.
My folks can make me split my side,
They grow the fruit but eat the rind.
Black bodies lie, lied upon and stained.
Are we not daughters? Mothers? Brothers? Fathers?
Still chained. Still screaming. Somehow, still dead.
We are the ambition of blood lines aberrant in their old age,
And we cannot be broken.
