There’s a strange fruit
hanging from the trees
but not the kind of Billie Holidays days
with
blood all on the leaves
but these
are a different set of trees
and they bear a strange fruit
called ignorance
with an illusion up its sleeve
an illusion so thick
sometimes it’s hard to breathe
I feel like I am in the days
of Dr. Martin Luther King back when
black folks marched and sang songs
and Martin had a dream but,
what exactly was his dream?
I found myself
asking myself
over and over these things
what exactly was his dream?
I thought and so my thoughts led me
to February 1818,
here was born Fredrick Douglas
a man who also had this dream
To not have to work the cotton fields
courtesy of the curses
was his dream see to
not be so dark
so black
this too was his dream and in
1845 he found himself
on the “winning” team.
Tired of hearing screams of being slapped up
he slipped up into a secret society.
Wanting to be a part of this world so badly
he joined the American Anti–Slavery Society
mistakenly joining a secret society
determined
to tear him away
from his own
society
This was his conclusion
Mr. Douglas my friends
got caught up in the illusion.
So being women some of us and
enjoying the company of women the other half of us
our thoughts led us to some women tales
we thought
well most certainly
we can get our answers from Mrs. Ida B. Wells
But as I studied her story in search for this dream
my mind began to drift away
as I saw that she too had this dream
she too had this purpose
she too wanted to escape
the curses
Blinded by a fake reality
she too joined a secret society
also known as the NAACP
created by Jews
but led by intelligent fools
with black skins
who sought to escape the bodies they were in
So
like Douglas
Ida became confused in a world of turmoil
that led her to believe her own confusion
she too was caught up
in this Illusion
but we had to figure out some way
somehow our own existence
our own being
therefore we continued our search
for Martin’s dream
our thoughts destination
had to steer towards education
so take it
it’s yours
this led us to of course,
W.E.B. Dubois.
something about this man caused an excitement
that ran through you and me we
became amazed
and began to admire his level of maturity
when it came to intellectual ability so we thought sure
“Now this man can school me.”
However, with him too my mind became stumped
as I ran across this myth
and
found that my admirer was in favor
of the talented tenth?
To my astonishment
he too had this dream
He too wanted to be on what he thought
was the winning team
(even if it meant only 10% of the winning team)
see because Dubois didn’t understand the curses
he created the crisis
magazine
so as we caught up to Dr. Martin Luther King and we
heard his many speeches singing “I had a dream!”
we too began to lust for this very dream
even if it was not real
all we had to do was feel
feel like we had this dream
even after our depression still lingers
and our arthritis can still be felt in the fingers
and our AIDS rate keeps growing
and our blood stops flowing
even in the midst of the curses
and the confusion
we’d still rather give ear to this Freedom
the illusion.
The PBS Blog 