BLACK ATLANTIS
Legend has it
Our great great great great grandparents were born of soil
They had two legs
And two lungs
and enough land underneath them to never run out of places to roam
And then one day
These giant ships started to grow out of the skyline
And off of them came these creatures the color of clamshells
and they had beady eyes
and sharp claws
and hands that shot bullets
and they gathered our ancestors on these ships and claimed them as "cargo"
and when our ancestors were on the ships they would hum into the sea
and sometimes the sea would hum back
but eventually out ancestors grew impatient with the ships
and the beady eyed men who put them there
they said they knew anything that pale could not have good intentions
and decided that death would be softer than whatever waited for them on the other side of the sea
And so they jumped
ready to die
But instead
when they inhaled the water
their lungs morphed into gills
and their skin wasn't skin anymore but thick, black scales
and they swam to the bottom of the ocean
because they figured no ships could ever reach that far
and down there they found a sunken city
and named it
Black-lantis!
and that is the story of how we got here
of how we created a home right under the noses of monsters
yet they’re the ones who call us make-believe
Now,
we are everywhere.
the mississippi, tallahatchie, the neighborhood pool
It doesn't matter
all currents lead here
we have heard stories that up there,
on the surface,
some of you never made it off the ships
that you docked on a shore full of the pale, beady eyed creatures
and that they demanded blood in exchange for land
Well surely you must be empty of both by now
We heard they wear your teeth as necklaces
Print out pictures of your dead bodies and pass them out as warnings
Here, there is only alive & alive even louder
Anything they have ever told you about blk folk
and the water
that wasn't a love story
is a lie
We can not drown,
No!
drowning is just a violent word for returned home
but fine,
let them call us dead
if it means they'll leave us the hell alone
let them call us a myth
if it means they won't come searching
but you,
you need to know the truth about the water
and the home that is waiting for you in it
Blk-lantis
is just a softer place to call God
Imagine what life would be if you never knew what the eyes of a monster looked like
Imagine a sea of blk folk
laughing about their past lives on the land
I know
You already have a place you call home
But tell me,
what of it has ever kept you safe
Can you point to any piece of land that has not called out for your undoing
Up there
breathing is hard..
So why are you still there?
On the surface?
So close
to what is trying to kill you?
