Black men have long had to see the world through metaphor—
Convert what is observed into something different- easier, better
This is the science of othering –making a way out of no way –
To be given nothing and still expected to finish
to breathe life into pyramids of bronze, iron
to converse in the language of fire, steam, electricity
Our axel grease / shaving cream / plastic
Our ink and paper / our wrenches and blood plasma
Our hands sweat and dream while stars watch us curiously.
What ever belonged to us except debt?
What new world there was had to be forged into our favor
A world we were responsible for without tools the first
We call upon visions of perfect, useful things
guitar, typewriter, door knob, folding bed
Bringing them into a world that is expert in division, but has no adding machine.
To think: there was no lawn mower in the garden and
God saw but one use for wild peanuts.
Jesus rose without use of elevator, fried fish for thousands without a gas burner.
That was the miracle.
Children: their hair freshly brushed, their sticky mouths glowing with ice cream
use to laugh about the man who gave farmers reasons to dream on the other side of dust storms.
Now his name is seed itself, prayed to from the ground up.
There is so much potential in this world
now that we’re in it.
The Dirty Rat 