I love Islam and cream soda

It was July, 2010. That summer, my daughter was preparing to move to Baltimore with her mother, who had recently married a brother living there. Being the dutiful father and Muslim, I helped my ex pack and straighten the apartment for their departure. As I was gathering up Umarah’s things, I came across as small, girly-pink notebook labeled, “JOURNAL”. I’ve said it before – as a father, when it comes to kids, I am nosy. Unapologetically. I don’t subscribe to Leave-It-To-Beaver notions of parenting. Being a step/father to girls made me super vigilant, super protective. And super nosy. Sue me – and good luck. All that, of course, is to say, I opened and thumbed thru Umarah’s journal. What I read ripped my soul out and tied it in a knot.

Like that last tribe of Israel My past in invisible My original name has been left behind And my bloodline lies fossilized In the ruins of grown over slave quarters That they forget to talk about on Tuesday plantation tours That all men ware created equal has always Been a bit of a White Lie Most days, were still trying to find That remaining 2/5ths of humanity They like to say: That's not today, so get over it already But that's not likely to happen until I take my story back The one that they tell about: Buck-toothed rabbits in the briar patch Pickininnies with bare feet and braided plaits Black bird buffoons in Saturday morning cartoons And in Tarzan movies with mite midgets in blackface Pretending to be pygmies See, nobody else will ever get YOUR story right Everybody still dreams of a White Christmas But Black Ice... Is dangerous and insidious They like to say: That's just not today But let's be honest: Ebola only became a pr...

"Nigga" is a spoken word... A poem I wish I never heard A haiku that tastes like a lollipop or butterscotch With a bubble in it that cuts the roof of your mouth when you suck too hard on it "Nigga" swirls an effervescent tingle at the back of your throat, Before it backflips quick off the palette like a gymnast Yet I wince,  Every time I see white folks hear me and my niggas saying it We use "nigga" like a slave masters last name Both lies about our past – that we adopt anyway "Nigga" hangs in our mouth like niggas hung in the south