DOPE: "Warriors Walk Alone" Jessica Care Moore

Warrior walk alone
For Erykah Badu


Warriors walk alone
But stay protected by their pack
Give them everything they wanted
Then take it all back
Make them find their icon in the mirror
Sprout their own fear and watch them grow
Tell their story – cry when you do it
Turn your blood to funkadelic polkadots
Sign your name in red
Change the I to why
Because we have to change
Because black girls are dying
Because no one showed them how to live
Mama fish, the children will revolt
Whispers and reports of oil spills
Will kill the women
Who make revolution, food for their children

A penny bank full of butterflies
Will never cocoon into enough cash
To pay for the expectations of spectators
Gypsy haters
Wash your colorful wings in the well
Know that all your wishes
Add to our spicy bitches brew
We are who was sent to you
So, who sent you?
When the shit goes down
Will you remember which way the blue bird flew?
I advise you carry your compass and your scissors
Next time you go fishing for the worst part of good
I hope your ideas of consciousness
Can get you out this hood
In one piece
We wolves always come in peace
We are the traveling leaf, that cries for trees
Music angel.
Stretch your warrior marks
Mark your warrior path
Stretch marks tattoo your temple
Swallow your dimples
Hide your style/market your spirit/sell something/cut it off/save
them/sacrifice/drink water/pray/laugh and breath/cross your legs/get your
gun/wage the war/make them buy it/bat your eyes/rock it out/make them
beg/put the hits on the b side/smile warrior
Listen for your tribe

Here we go!

Check your footprints
Pick them up/shoot em down/take the a train/bite your story
Save your tongue//just get there sista/even if you have to leave a few of
us
behind/chant backward rhymes/store your milk for ammunition/ use your
intuition/shave your hair/wish them luck
tell the witch doctors/we don’t give a fuck/

scar your face/pierce your nose/unwrap the package
define the present

tell them no

just when they think they’ve have it

meditate while they criticize it/burn sage for the liars who print it/turn
down the stove/only boil with natural fire/burn down their house/watch the
words melt /save the ink/write a new song/return to the ocean/leave them
to
the mermaids/carry your pepper spray/wear your hooker books/tease
them/make
them prove their identity/brand it to their bodies/force them to pin a
star
to their clothes/convert the masses/design the logo/create a real
revolution

when no one’s looking

so they’ll never see us

coming


© Moore Black Press 2001

From: The Alphabet Verses The Ghetto

Moore Black Press, Atlanta 2001

ISBN: 0-9658308-0-2