Editors note: POOR Magazine‘s 5th Annual Poetry/Music Battle of ALL the Sexes was held on Valentine’s Day. This years battle, POOR’s Lisa Gray-Garcia tells us, “honored ancestors Uncle Al Robles, Mama Dee and all ancestors that have been victims of po’lice terror, racism and poverty.”
I love POOR Mag and all the radical poverty activists there and about do, and as a show of support, I’m happy to run the winners here.
FIRST PLACE
Birth Out Mother Earth
By Trina Brigham a.k.a Realness
I was formed from dust and chillzed out the wound of my mother.
I’m mother’s earth first born…
When her water bag broke …
She baptized me in many bodies of waters…
She washed me in her oceans…
She showered me in crimsomed tides…
We are compatiable genetically incline…
My soil is fertitle i reproduce as well as mulitiply…
Not only did i recieve my mother’s blessings…
I also inherited her earthy treasures…
I birth out diamonds minerals and exotic stones out my wound…
I bleed symphonies of oils and fossil fuel…
Not only do I have evidence I’m living proof…
I help sutain life beyound measure…
I reproduce jewels as well as treasures…
I craddle civilzation man’s roots are as acient as me…
The garden of Eden she lives here with me…
The first tree grown rose up out the dirt from me…
Which is why I question why are my people living in poverty?
I reproduce the highest quality of natural resources from within me…
There are more than enough to feed every part of me…
God gave me the ability to reproduce and do so abundantly…
So why must my peole parish from stavation and poverty?
My people are a choosen generation….
Their generational seeds are implanted through me….
With provision came decision ….
I have always been whole…
A whole continent …
A whole nation…
A whole country….
A whole people…
I’m birth out of Mother Earth
I’m Africa and Africa is me!!!
SECOND PLACE
El Machete
By Muteado Silencio
From sun up to sun down, rain or shine,
365 days with machete in hand,
cutting or chopping the harvest to live another day,
to live for my family,
for my wife for my children, with humanity with
mother earth.
to stay alive,
to survive to see tomorrows sun rise.
365 days with machete in hand to defend the future
of my family, my wife
my children the future of humanity of mother earth.
365 days with machete in hand to stand against the
unjustice against the against
the ones who can not defend themselves
Against the raping of mother earth 365 days
with machete in hand to defend mother
earth.