Diamonds In The Night Sky

Blue Collar Saga

Crawled through those days in classrooms, staring at the nape of your neck
Evenings after dinner, Mom said “Done your homework yet?”
Dad was always gone working two tough jobs for us
Pulled night-shift at the factory, daytime he would drive a bus
And instead of text books I’d be caught in messages which you sent me
Then night time fall asleep with my arms so empty

There was a price to be paid for stealing this heart of mine
After the shotgun wedding you said a factory job would do just fine
No more playing at life, I had to get my priorities in line
Traded picket lines for barbwire away from the traffic signs
Promised me you’d love me till we both hit seventy
And I’d never have to fall asleep with arms empty

Life got rough and times got tough, the factory doesn’t operate no more
Seems like when production died, it took our love with it out the door
You said our son went to school when I called you on the phone today
I’m just an old man now with factory work printed on my resume`
You moved back to the city, you’re remarried to a man with plenty

Daytimes I look for work, night times I sleep with both arms empty

I remember how Dad would drive all day in the city bus
I can recall all the work Momma did each week without a fuss
Said she would pay for college if I can correctly reminisce
But we had to get married and I left the education for Sis
And though your friends and family still seem to resent me
You shouldn’t suffer me to fall asleep with arms empty

Stars In The Night Sky

Never been to this school before, it’s her first week.
She’s got dimples in her cheeks
but an accent when she speaks.
So the kids in grade school who can sometimes be cruel
call her names like Tar Baby making her insecure.
And at times she scrubs but her skin won’t clean,
till she graduates and barely feels like a human being.
Now looking like a dream today in her bedroom mirror
she’s willing to do anything to stop feeling inferior.
Ethiopian princess don’t lotion with bleach;
dry up your eye water, insert dimple to cheek.
You’re beautiful in every way, your nose, hair, and lips.
Eyes diamonds in the night sky, rhythm wound in hips,
Teeth of ivory, skin pure and clean,
remain an African Queen.

And those dimples were embossed
in my memories for miles
Here she still lights up the room
every time she simply smiles
Now my bowl is placed within the sink
and she brings me morning tea;
so I rewind the riddim playing on the CD,
this time for me

Accused

Here I stand before you accused
rightfully
ready to be judged and sent
to the penitentiary
Yes, here I stand before you today
not caring for mercy or what you have to say
Today.
I did what it took
for me to make it through
Now you label me a criminal...
well crime is what I do
But before you sentence me
take a look at yourself
because you commit the crime
of robbing children of good health
Living wastefully in the West
you’ve stolen the World’s wealth
chopped down whole gardens of forests,
told me to stock a shelf

Emptied my streams and oceans
of salmon, shrimp, and kelp
Then turned a blind eye
when my brethren begged
for help.
Yes, you lawman, politician
in your Jaguar or Mercedes,
in your air conditioned castles
producing cancer for our babies
Yes, you Mr. Judge who
presides over my case
You who buy diamonds and gold
and build fences ‘round your place
You’re not felons, you’re mass murderers
laying the world to waste
Turning a blind eye on earth
planning to split to outer space
When people starve in Darfur
your head is in the sand
But for oil, diamonds, or gold
you’d jump to push them off their land
So here at my trial
before your judgment is made
Know that I didn’t create Aids
or get rich off the backs
of slaves

I Named a Star for You

Many extravagant gifts were given
to the keepers of West Africa;
gold and good land, ivory, fruit, and diamonds.
But knowing the tendency to be jealous,
an inclination to rob possessed by the invaders from the North,
the moon was plated yellow, precious stones cast in the sky
as a precautionary measure
just to be safe.

Today delicate hands are chopped off,
sacred white bone and marrow exposed,
nipples are sliced from firm breasts with machetes
while a mother’s innocent suckling starves.
Up in the North a fiancée smiles with twinkling eyes-
her engagement band and golden earrings shine…
Still, I named a star for you; pure diamonds are forever
the testimony to our bond will never be for sale
Even if Sierra Leone is milked or bled dry
our love shall endure.

If I Forget You

We don’t need a contingency plan,
we already have one.
Every Pesach after the Seder we say
”Next year in Yerushalayim”.
If for some unforeseeable reason
we shall be separated;
and have no technology for communicating,
and our telepathic operating systems are down,
and our lungs still breathe in the breath of life,
we can still re-unite.
Isn’t that thought beautiful?
If another Holocaust should occur,
or all electrical circuits should disconnect,
or time rewinds forward to Egypt,
or all our tongues are cut out,
We can still find each other.
Isn’t that a beam of sunshine through rain?

Autumn Flames

We don’t laugh like how we used to;
you’re right- changing of the times
I can feel the breath of Autumn,
these cool chilly nights
So many vibrant memories
splashed with creeks of tears
We’ve survived the hunt together,
outlasted all these years
The path we took through barley fields
Replaced with asphalt and superstores
There they crowned Joni Mitchell Queen
While burning down what she was fighting for
And you and I stood out of the crowd
As they heaped coals on roaring flames
But refusing the witness stand
When the time came to lay the blame
Those dreams we set our lives upon
even if they never get realized
I’ll continue holding on

It’s worth that look in your eyes
Share you with Joni Mitchell’s mind
And the voice of Alicia Keys
Love you like I love pasture land
Winding streams guarded by willow trees
I see beauty in the ancient battle
glimpse pulchritude in pain
Stay indoors while it’s warm outside
walk miles in pouring rain
We don’t laugh like we used to, you’re right
Changing of the times
I can feel the breath of autumn
See tell-tale signs in facial lines
Two hearts can maintain a flame
But one alone will freeze
Love is the skeleton that’s left
When all else falls like leaves