The Burden of Truth

The Burden of Truth

It is not enough to simply be

   Sojourner Truth’s descendant

It is not enough to write essays

   And hold a loftier charge to head conformed expectations

Nor heed constant challenge to enlighten the blusterous

   It’s just not enough

 

A legacy of strength and forthright truth

   Sits upon my shoulders with the weight of obligation

Burdened to produce more every day, despite blessings or plight

   With regard to the gospel Sojourner Truth

Truth reached hearts and touched souls, influenced masses

   From a pulpit built of right and just

Harvesting reverence and disciples

 

Her legacy should rest on my head like a halo

   Worn as a crown of privilege

A command to become learned and free

   To pick up Truth’s testament and lead

Thirty-five years and I still don’t know what to do

   Each morning Truth looks back from the mirror

Holding her stare demanding accountability

 

I have hit a wall that surrounds me now

   On the other side awaits emancipated glory

Clouds dance and tease rationing light

   In my blinded state I feel the barrel of the whip before I hear its crack

Welts swell with blood and I am on bended knee

   Praying for strength to stand up and endure fate’s puppet

It’s too much and I look to heaven demanding accountability

 

With a wealth of freedom and the epiphany I am still a slave

   I wallow behind walls of servitude and imposing doom

Wasting my privilege and talent

   On fear of rejection by owners without deed or right

Waiting to be saved by ancestors or lovers

   Who share no mind of me and my cadaverous loathing

 

 

No march for equality, no covert escape for freedom

   No boycott of all that oppresses me

Only the passing of time and moons as I ponder,

   Lull and ponder the passing of time and moons

As a slave to the captors of my balls and passion

   I alone am liable for my shackled self and treasonous will

Burdened not with ancestry and obligation

   But ego and contemptuousness

 

A yellow ball of shame rides my shoulder

   Bowing my back and bending my knee

I pray for strength to stand up and endure the evolution

   Without remorse and in the face of shame

To become the gospel of Truth clothed in right and just

   A force within time, that revolution at sunrise, the hope at sunset

It’s simple and enough

   A descendant of Sojourner Truth, blood of her vein, me