Strange Fruit

Strange fruit hanging

From the poplar trees

Blood on the leaves

Excuse while I clear my mind now

It's been racing since the summertime

Breathe!

I told you to wait

In fact, I need you to wait

To afford me a moment in time to catch my breath so that I may make sense of a seemingly senseless existence

My brother hangs from the poplar tree

He, no strange fruit in my eyes

I am his keeper

And it is the one who keeps

that knows the value of what is being kept

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree

Blood on the leaves

Breathe!

Trust me, I am trying but it’s hard to catch one's breath

under 400 years of unrest

The soul of my brother tells me to

Breathe!

Brother, I'm trying hard but this existence has me hyperventilating

asphyxiation

the only escape

Breathe!

Stiff man now hanging from the poplar tree

Body without soul

How queer this predicament

How meaningless this existence

Breathe!

Each breath gets harder to take because while these experiences seem distant to you

They remain near to me.

What is the price of my brother’s life?

Worthless to you

Priceless to me

Check the wording

They say

“The darker berry

The sweeter juice

The darker the flesh

The deeper the roots"

My brother’s life drip slowly to the earth

I guess this is where they get the term

Bittersweet chocolate

But nothing’s sweet about this existence

Because my brother escapes the noose today

and is still hung and killed.

Hung by the consequences of racism, hate, and fear

Killed by poverty, mass incarceration, homelessness, sickness and disease

Breathe!

I cry for my brother

I weep at our collective powerlessness

How did it ever come to this?

Maybe because our kindness is perpetually mistaken for weakness

Maybe it's because we come in peace

and you come with your guards up

and your arms up.

Don't shoot!

Look my brother in his eyes and see that you and he and he and you are one

How long will it take for you to realize that

One cannot build and throw away the tools

Especially when

Those tools are people with a name and a story,

Who have a voice, eat, sleep, breathe and feel like you do.

Respect my brother's contribution to this land.

Don’t refuse him

The earth trembles at your disdain for his

blood,

sweat, and

tears

that will forever remain in the foundation.

I and I are the roots

Our support to the nation cannot be erased

Even if you tried

And trust, you have tried

So behold and see how the tables have turned

The refused

Now becomes the cornerstone

The pillars of our civilization come crumbling down

Destruction comes rushing and you can’t seem to understand why

But anything built on hate and fear cannot

Stand for long

I tell to thee no lies

With no apologies and no reparations for your wrongs

I write these words in the form of a song to convey to you very simple ideas

And to understand them, I hope it doesn’t take you long

Pressure bust pipes and

Now is the calm before the storm

Because cultural wounds are bound to explode under years of neglect

So temporary pain is our only guarantee

Because

Strange blood from strange fruit

Always seeks justice

Even from the grave

Because he was Able

And you Cain

And I, the omitted woman, bore witness to this slewing

So I must stand to say

what you couldn’t

Be courageous enough

to do

what you wouldn’t

Because, I am my brother’s keeper

And I refuse to let his blood be shed in vain

But don’t start your mourning

I just issued the warning

Now

Breathe!

Because there are consequences for hating all that is foreign

Now how alien is that for strange fruit?

Shantel L. Powell (2017)

Quotation from Tupac Shakur