American Arrogance
We are conditioned, oppressed, depressed, accessed
Excused, confused and intrusive.
We are proud, rude and cruel.
We choose capitalism as a spiritual tool.
We are corporate, ignorant, combative, consumers
and humorous.
We are intimidators and interrogators.
We are litigious and imperialists.
We exploit our young and discard our old.
We convince ourselves we are just
Just because
We are Americans.
We are leaders, teachers, students and philosophers.
We are believers, volunteers, dreamers and achievers.
We are mathematicians, astronauts and iconoclasts.
We are Americans.
We have landed on the moon yet have no use for
Harmony with humans.
We are global yet local
We are survivors lost and slaves paid for with a cost.
We are abusers and users mistrusted for
corruption and consumption.
Who can believe an American?
Will repentance reap grief from decadent soil?
Who is to blame for a tarnished name?
Only an American knows which side
the green grass grows.
SUPERSHERO
We wild women ride railroads with combat boots strapped and laced tightly
Protecting our young like sheep our children who sleep with nightmares
We keep our emotions frozen from fiction in history books
We the daughters of
We imbibe on intuition
We bear our burdens on backs barren our gender specific
We are the superwomen
The ladies who give birth to revolutions in boardrooms
Break rooms, bedrooms, bodegas and brothels
Some of us finance romance because of personal circumstance
We survive
We build bridges that generations will cross
We crochet uniforms for marching armies
We pray, repeat mantras, we chant and sing warrior lullabies
We connect with ancestors for answers to questions that six year olds conceive
In
We climb heights with deer and send out warnings about lightning and thunder
Rain washes our wounds clean and we are positioned for battle again
Our memories are like elephants and our swords are like tusks
We travel in packs and use our weapons when necessary
Our words pierce through flesh that is diseased
We bring forth healing in our metaphors
Some of us are doctors. Some of us midwives.
Some of us serve as counsel and the rest of us wait.
We use our gifts and barter with our dignity to gain honor
We choose carefully.
Our wisdom has been the passport on this journey
We rub cocoa butter on scars and mend broken bones
We survive
We look until we find the red orange yellow sunset
We sleep until we are tired of being tired
We rise until we kiss the sky
Our mothers are silent because they cannot speak
It is our time now and we have to rely on the moon inside of us
The tide is current. The tomatoes are ripe and the harvest is ready
It is the woman in the mirror who will make history hers
Change around physics to make the earth rotate with her cycle
We are the axis. The center of creation consistent with theology
The marrow in our bones is where Solomon hid his riches
We are virtuous and yet simple complicated and creative
We the mothers of nature daughters of the dusk
Our names are written by scribes and translated into hieroglyphics
We are Julie Dash, Dorothy Dandridge, Lisa Zuré, Martha Stewart, Shab Bahadori, Matahari, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Madam CJ Walker, Zora Neal Hurston, Brenda Stewart, Barbara Walters and Betty Boop
We are the sisters of Lotus. Fuck Charlie.
We love him but this poem is about us!
We forget and we remember
We are welfare mothers with no man at home and five mouths to feed
We succeed
We are crack heads with habits trading places with movie stars
We breed
We are aid to dependent children
We breathe
We are public in our quests to conquer the world
We dream
We are the heads of state, chairmen of the board, senators and presidents
We are free
As we walk miles on roads less traveled with shoes tight around our ankles
The footprints we make are indelibly recorded in the computers of little girls
Who in turn play hopscotch with other little girls and they pass the lessons on to little boys
Our names are documented in court dockets
Scribbled on prison walls in notebooks and typed in code by paralegals.
We are eagles
We aid and abet we teach the alphabet to kindergarten classes
We help the illiterate we make breakfast for the poor and needy
We build homes for the homeless
We make no excuses and apologize only to ourselves
We are the superwomen. We call ourselves She short for Supershero
Our men call us blessed and learn Lamaze
They purify our breast milk for us when we are sleeping. When we sleep
Our spiritual teachers send messages and we use the ocean to interpret
The moon changes our moods and so we are balanced
We believe in ourselves and so we are brilliant
We use the colors of aura to paint our destinies
We are infinity.
We are the Superwomen. We call ourselves She short for Supershero
We discern decipher and identify bullshit with ease.
In our suffering and pain we have conceded
We wild women ride railroads with combat boots strapped and laced tightly
So only the unattainable can render us insane.
Sydnee Stewart is a performance poet, actor and writer. She has won various poetry slams and competitions, was featured in the Langston Hughes documentary called Hughes’ Dream Harlem, which aired on the cable networks BLACKSTARZ, was a featured poet on BET’s Lyric Café and starred in a feature film called Everyday People which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the prestigious New Director’s Film Festival at Lincoln Center and is aired on HBO.
At present, Stewart is completing her second book of prose and poetry with an accompanying musical poetry album. She has been featured in The New York Times, Variety, Jane and People, and has published works African Voices, Rolling Out, QBR Magazine, The Lasting Joy (1998), America at the Millennium (2000), Signifyin’ Harlem (2002/2003), and Under a Quicksilver Moon. She is currently writing a screenplay.
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