by Ilyas El-Amin

Questions From The Bottom Of My Soul

Too Muslim to be American,
too American to be Muslim

Too awake to sleep,
too angry to weep

Too connected to disconnect,
too independent to claim any sect

Too pessimistic to fall for hope,
too sober to f*ck with dope

I sit teetering on the edge of forever,
titillating from uncertainty

Stepping on the cracks of reality,
forsaking sanity

There is nowhere I can go,
nowhere to run nor hide
where these thoughts don’t rule my mind

Why is, are, does…
Our world is filled with fear and pain,
suffering rests on everyone

War on the lips, peace at the fingertips,
walking talking hypocrites

Corrupted leaders, illiterate readers,
speaking and teaching believable lies

Hearts filled with hate,
religions worshipping the same God full of debate

Bigots and thieves slotted to lead,
while the honorable are bruised, burned and bleed

Wars fought in the name of greed,
while we sit complaining numbed and distracted by legal weed

The earth gets raped, pillaged and drained of life,
for the sake of convenience despite what’s right

Corporations allowed to wantonly thrive,
while the average family can barely survive

Working for pennies and paying millions remain the norm,
as a path plotted from the day we are born

Truth is…
Exhausted we lean in reaching for strength and support,
In lieu of strength, we’re offered crutches: Budweiser and Newport

We are in a time when we’re tiring of governmental idiosyncrasies,
so on our hands we sit waiting for little reprieves
Encouragement comes with words like pull up your bootstraps or roll up your sleeve

Tears flow on the face of the sincere,
as frowns grow on the face of those who are more aware

The tyrant’s grimace stretches with each blow,
that lands on the abused child below

Whose subjugated to a system determined to enslave,
entrap and keep them under thumb
Teaching them emptiness to ensure they remain dumb

Deaf, blind and controlled, insisting they remain enthralled with programmatic, systematic institutions disguised as education, entertainment and freedom

Why is, are, does…

Walking through the hood
considered as up to no good,
unless you’re white then walking is respected and understood

White people in charge of it all
did the rest of us miss it when God made that call

The age of enlightenment feeling so damn dark,
public emasculation hitting its mark

People imprisoned for a victimless crime,
while violent officials are rewarded with vacation time

Prisons over-filled with melanin skin,
as if melanin itself is the person’s sin

Question…
What is it we must do in order to stop playing the fool,
literally drowning with no water inside an empty pool

When will we open our hearts to what our eyes behold,
and stop believing the dazzling bullsh*t we’re being told

To have visions that understand the miracles that mundanity encapsulates,
everyday life perpetuates, the truth instigates

Entrapped by ego’s call is humanity destined to fall

Why is, are, does…
The activist silenced forgotten behind bars,
meanwhile chem-trails are still blocking stars

Poison in our food and the water we drink,
no wonder people don’t f*cking think

Everyone on this fluff of “let’s just love”
waiting for an intervention to come from above

Truth so damn hard to enact,
can we not see that warmongers have solidified a pact

The few that sit at the epi-center of pain allowed to persist,
while millions kneel refusing to resist

People distracted by screens of every shape and size,
fooled into believing “social” media lies

The world aloof of which way it should go,
to fix the problems and globally grow

A past of separatism ingrained in the consciousness of us all,
as a species we should be walking but barely we crawl

Why is, are, does…
Rebellion dies at the end of a poem
or is only actionable on a zafu while chanting “ommm”

For more self-study, The Urban Howl recommends The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict.

#TRUTHIS

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