Spoken Word: Para la Gente (For the People)

Author

Edgar Nkosi White

Release Date

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Share

I don't care if the Caribbean changes
flags and parties
as often as a young girl
changes panties.

She'll still sleep white
And dream American.

(In her mind anyway).

She may kiss her dark mother in kitchens
But for her father she loves light
(Especially if she's never met him).

And if you ever ask her why
She'll answer as her mother told her:

"Para mi gente
Para mi gente que venga"

For my people to come.

I once loved a Cape Verde girl
She came by sea and Brazil.

I wanted to lay her
Down on a carpet of green.

But all I had was concrete
and the mud of the mines on my boots.

She'll marry some minister's son instead
who'll dress her dreams in petticoats
and sell them as answers.

Sell them our past disguised as the future.
Sell them tourism
inside of slavery.

Para la gente
Para la gente
que venga!

For those to come.

Nkosi
(2019)

Latest Stories