Still I Stand

I stand still, meditating as I summon up the will.
For this truth I would die, but for this truth would I kill?
I probably will; knowing that I fight for what's real.
But only when necessary, so may God be my shield.
I remember the days when my brain was still tender;
Striving for something bigger though conditioned to surrender.
I refuse to be defined by the news.
To let you tell me how to live, so that I can be like you?
I've had enough; now I'm demanding respect.
And though I'm far from being perfect,
I am a man nonetheless,
And I refuse to stand aside and be stripped of my dignity!
My back is still bleeding from the day that you befriended me;
Motherland is crying out for vengeance on her enemies.
But why fight when my own people are killing me.
And my enemies happen to be akin to me.
This is insanity,
It wasn't always like this.
When slavery was at its peak, we were united like a vice grip.
But now we’re all free, and we're fighting over an ice pick.
Take a man's life cause he’s not from the right set.
If Garvey was alive, I wonder would he be proud?
If Malcolm X were breathing, I wonder would he smile, or would he frown?
Did they do it all for nothing?
So that we can spread disease in our families and call it 'hustling'?
God is my witness my heart is really aching,
I try to show by my living what I lack in conversation.
I'm telling you this today, man there's a way that we can make it.
I believe it in my heart, and there resides no faking.
It starts with an education; take a book,
Investigate it;
Cover to cover, word for word, all pages.
Learn of who you are, cause that blood your carrying is sacred.
And that spirit in your body is from the Almighty maker; your great and you can't shake it!
Who told you, you can't make it?
All paths are yours, all you gotta do is take it.

~ Avrin