Excerpt from A Light Shines Through Darkness. Just forget it they said And I tried But I cried until I tasted blood As I witnessed foreign ships Sailing boldly in route to the motherland with plans to rob her of her greatest assets Just let it go they said And I tried But still I find myself Frantically reaching out Clinging on to every last bit Of my heritage, my history, my Africa As the first enslaved brother must have. But slavery didn't effect you they say And I agreed But I was wrong it seems Because we are still in this boat together Shackled side by side Chained down by ignorance and self hate In the sweltering heat of manic oppression Forced fed materialism and instant gratification Until we are good and full with vain conceit that we begin to relieve our bowels all over each other They told me to suck it up the Jews had it worst But I couldn't Engulfed in wave after wave of lynchings, police brutality and the raping of our beautiful black diamonds I could do nothing but choke on the injustice Frantically but I failed At the bottom of the sea of forgiveness I witness millions if those who Were casted over during the middle passage like a sailor tosses back a unwanted fish A like girl no older than 7 each her hand to me As a great circle formed She pulled me down with a smile And said come lets join hands as we pray Pray for what I said perplexed One prayer for our oppressor and what we have endured at their hands And the second I asked That we never forget She said as she grasped my hand and looked forward By Tommy Ross