appease 

appease

appease 

In case no one told us 

We can’t be free and bound at the same time

And at the same time we must discuss (you see)

That to appease is to give up one’s will inorganically 

And so we are here for this establishment 

To relinquish control and open to mismanagement by others 

To please and appease 

Is to leave your normal and give into another’s

At the root, appeasement isn’t an issue 

It’s just that when we live to march by a foreign drum (naw we ain’t dumb)

You’ll miss your sounds and rhythms

You’ll miss you 

A life of appeasement without care for and knowledge of one’s needs and desires

It’s like a flame waiting for one’s meal to cook so they can eat but there’s no fire

It is a life necessarily headed toward hellish bondage

This is a message we need and so here it is to admonish

We can no longer live life and not actually be ourselves 

Cause there is no life in that 

No more can we delve 

Into patterns that have us tied in the knots of despair 

with no possibilities of being open

(It’s getting hot in here) 

let’s clear the air 

We must collectively analyze our environment 

it’s a trap

Like beings in a cul-de-sac

with no one way for release

Mummified in inaction–stuck, wrapped

‍

appease 

appease

appease 

Inside

Out

Over 

Underneath 

It’ll be all around us 

Working our bodies and minds

Our spirits too

Extracting the glorious divine 

And at the same time our internal vastness

From abundant and elastic 

Now stiff and void 

With diagnoses from theories of Freud

An understanding that stands over 

Our truths 

Tied together by madness that reaches and takes 

(And makes) the concept of permission seem foreign 

Storing any semblance of reality 

Into an artificially manufactured life

With the resemblance of a fallacy

So now we’re handcuffed to the decisions of the empowered 

Imprisoned to structures that have our hearts dem devoured 

‍

Appease 

Appease

Appease 

They taught us how to labor 

Worked us hard and gave us crumbs

And labeled that “their” favor 

Pretending the entire time to be good-natured

Just to break us down repetitively to pulp with no flavor 

And we wonder why we drained 

Coerced to lives of struggle and pain

Tell me and you that this is our divine positionality

Like we were born to serve others relentlessly and it’s just our personality

A temperament of docility and inaction are a must

Squelching the collective flame that warms and illuminates the paths for us

Stop, drop, and roll so our greatness won’t combust 

And so, we are relegated to a place where the cool and cold is where we lust

Hunting is their game

In playing games they pull our tusks

And label us beasts where we respond in concrete jungles, with smells of musk 

The stench of survival birthed allergies to our roots and such 

So some of us defeated, we stay stuck 

Immobilized and disguised with the mask like we “free” 

We switch codes, we separate, we flee

We get others to validate and legitimize with their degrees

For us to be forced to live their lives without rewards that relieve 

Let’s make this clear before the hour is late

We are relegated to lives where oppression illuminates 

‍

APPEASE 

APPEASE

APPEASE 

What now?

We got a moment waiting for us to seize  

The mountainous obstacles and boulders to surmount

let’s cease

The work of denial, integration, and separation 

Unless we are separating ourselves as the peculiar make moves 

Toward lives of liberation where we make the rules

In our terms, on our terms the paths that we choose

Not appeasement and accept our bereavement 

Cause there is much work to do 

No need to appease we will build and we will materialize 

And not without detours and feuds 

For now it’s focus, flow, strategy 

And in rest we must subdue 

the notion that we don’t matter and we must appease to make it through 

Remember family!!!

We can’t be physically in one place and at the same moment in another 

In other words (you see?)

We can’t be bound and free

So today 

we have to be clear before we proceed 

That we will no longer predicate our actions upon the subjugating ideology

that we must

‍

APPEASE! 

APPEASE!

APPEASE!