"ASHKENAZI"You can listen to the audio above while you readThey used to murder people who look like I do...
Walk into villages Shooting, Beating, Hanging people by the neck for show.… Babies, Heartlessly ripped from mothers’ arms, Held by fragile ankles, Dangled, With genocidal intention.… These were merciless vigilantes, They wore Death's flesh And dishonor’s dog tags, Bearing black flags of detest, They almost put an entire race To rest...… Beliefs Became blue tattooed numbers, Etched into flesh Like Forbidden birth marks, Etched by monsters, That had forgotten, There is an existence Between hell and heaven, And it’s called Humanity... What gave man divine authority? The power to extinguish exiles as god In Showcased executions Like The stone expressions of fear Chiseled in marble faces Were blank stares, Like, Deadly glares Sliced glass swastikas Into paper machete, Jews, Dancing around suicide fires Like, Their only ticket to freedom Was a toe tag... Eleven million killed. And that doesn't remember the Ninety-nine million Emotional scars, That shed red tears, Fed empty families, Still light candles And look high, Between the incisions of clouds, To catch the winks... Have you ever rejoiced for rain? Endured tears of vanquished pain Falling from fallen ones, Splashed sidewalk puddles To wavy reflections Of direction From above... Those cold hearts of, My ancestors enemies, Were coaxed to commandeer confessions Like candy, So don’t Hand me Any helpless resignation Saying Things are different today When in reality we only turn cheeks To look the other way Like fuck dodging bullets We evade hissing missiles... Sometimes I look back to kindergarten, Where I was made to pledge allegiance To the flag of a country I’m not sure I believe in, One that to me, Seems somewhat seasoned with treason, But how would I know I can never get straight answers to questions, Like 9/11's buried evidence... But I do know, That sometimes, The sun shines Rays, Through sidewalk cracked window shades, And warms the back of my neck Like, The comfort of a hug After being lost, And I thought I was found, Like Recycled pain can’t penetrate And trickle through blood vessels, While I wrestle, The idea, That modern terrorists exist, Behind all kinds of eyes And I try... I try not to judge people Whose skin, Is the color of Random airport searches And routine traffic stops, I try not to judge, Because I didn't get to choose my ethnicity either, And if I could have, It would have been, Neither… And I try, And it’s hard, It’s had to see good When tree branches rooted so deep beneath Earth’s surface Pump oxygen of anguish in all languages, I just wanna hear music, Be engulfed in symphonic harmony, Not harmin’ me, Wrapped in Soundproof rooms That aren’t basement bomb shelters In Israel, I just want a taste Of what it feels like To feel safe... |
"Ashkenazi" is a slam poem about social issues. It covers history from the holocaust to the impact of modern terrorismI've written quite a few slam poems about social issues. This one breaches a number of topics, particularly stereotyping. It's a poem about history and about some of the ugly shit I've seen in people along with issues you hear about on the news. It also meshes in with my life and personal experience. I have performed this one live at slams a couple times, and there's a good lesson here about stage performance for spoken word. Every time I do this piece, for some reason, I recite it differently. I noticed that when I recite it with a little bit of an angry tone, it gets a far greater reaction. I've talked about letting your content dictate your tone, and this is a great piece of evidence for that
|