Ashkenazi
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I'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 regular. 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.
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They 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 mache,
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.
It’s hard.
It’s hard 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.
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 mache,
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.
It’s hard.
It’s hard 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.