White Wine and Walnuts

Your sweetness requires dilution
Some contrasting flavor to equalize its intensity
Like sour chases sweet in pursuit of perfection
Watering down “too good”
So that it may be accepted as “true”

Your flavor is intoxicating
The elixir of your kiss warms my blood
Leaving me inebriated
Staggering about the town drunk
Looking for coffee and quiet
To cut the euphoria

So that I may breathe again

Sun showers are sweeter than downpours
They leave the scent of balance in the air
Equally engaging the senses like
Red Wine and Smoked Gouda
Whole Milk and honey
Golden sands and raging seas
My raw expression and your sweet acceptance

The merging of textures so different
In a universally scripted collaboration
Becoming my favorite midnight snack
Lovingly consumed in small portions

© 2010 Keith Horton

I and I

Once the smoke clears I will still be
Upright and strong
With the corpses of disbelievers at my feet
With or without you
I will rise
As the son of a King

From the womb of a Harlem Queen
Forged with an iron mallet
Struck on hot steel
Cured with ancestor's blood
To mark my path




I am a black rose
Growing out of city pavement
Spat upon and stepped on
By passers by
Beaten by all four seasons
Standing upright and strong
Still

Alive to thrive
In the light of hope and love
A peaceful warrior
Still believing in dreams
Regardless of your opinion
I am

The nurturer of children
Kissing boo-boos and broken hearts
Touching with seasoned sensitivity
With humble but hungry strides

Spitting fire if tread upon
Dismantling threats with my bare hands
Eliminating their existence
With forceful measure
Fighting for the right to be

I am fire and ice
Ying and yang
Lover and fighter
Healer of hearts
Passion unbridled
At both ends of the spectrum
Centered and balanced
By the love of Allah



© 2010 Keith Horton

Liberty and Justice

Hypocrisy drips from your forked tongue
while you pledge allegiance to your blood stained flag,
leaving murky puddles of dissention
that harbor the stench of century old lies.
‘Land of the Free’, and ‘Liberty and Justice’ for me,
as you turn a deaf ear to that Black Baby’s cries.

You,
the Sleepwalking Patriot
in a devil’s dance with double standards.
Eager to send our Sons to spill blood in foreign lands,
even as bombs blaze the night sky at home.
America is challenging its own freedoms,
while Lady Liberty hangs her head in shame.
Her country is bursting at the seams
protesting the Black King’s reign.

Marches in the streets are like Soweto in reverse.
Now, those in power scream bloody murder.
The justice you pledge is resented by you.
It was never meant for the brown masses.
You host Tea Parties serving hot brew
stoked with bags of their blood.

Who dare build a Mosque on this sacred land
where your legacy once stood tall and erect
along with Banks, Law Firms, and Houses of Ill Repute
built over the ancient  burial grounds of  slaves.

Put to rest in stolen Native American soil
Where their collective bones screamed
as they crumbled under the weight of progress,
like the mighty towers burned
as they crumbled under the weight of ‘success’.
Sacred land indeed,
but violated long before metal birds rained down from the sky
when many
Christian
Hindu
Jewish
AND Muslim Americans lost lives.

You,
The sleepwalking Patriot remain deaf dumb and blind,
blending together in your brainwashed mind
This beautiful Religion of peace….and….
these acts of hate by HUMAN kind.
Not Muslim Terrorists.
Not Islamic extremists.
No more than The Pilgrims,
Or The Klan
were Christian extremists.
But you don’t get that.
You want some ‘get back’,
so you serve the masses tall glasses of the Arab oil that you raped from them,
while they take cover from fragments of bombs raining down on them,
with the letters ‘USA’ stenciled on them
waking to see the sunrise kissing their dead children in the street.

Can you handle the truth?
Do you care to know the history?
The timeless war between Ismael and Issac
is facilitated by your weaponry.
Your ignorance perpetuates hatred
as you burn Qur’ans in the street.
Sleepwalking in the land of plenty.

Let’s us pray that the new Black King
Is wide awake!



© 2010 Keith Horton