I always thought I knew what I wanted.
When you’re young, you get this image
in your head of being adored by everyone,
and even if I was too young to know my
talent, this desire took over my soul.

And now everywhere I go I can take
the stage and astonish anyone with all
the notes I hit and all the words I speak.
And after a set people would tell me
that I remind them of Janice Joplin —

and people come to me to tell me
that my words changed the actions,
and changed their lives. I had done it.
People loved listening to the sound
of my voice, I had made a difference

in people’s lives... so, I don’t know why
I now feel like nothing is ever enough.
After a few life-rattling, life threatening
events in my life, I could not shake
the pain, so I tried to use this pain

to share in my work, and the masses
appreciated it, but I think in the end
they were all tired of the sob stories
and wanted to only be entertained.
You tell me I have talent, and I do,

but I am not your plaything, and I
don’t want to be a corporate puppet.
Let me have my respite from hunters
who want to turn my talent to nothing.
And after I’m gone, try to remember

my voice, my words.

“Feeling of False Ownership”

They say that they gave us human rights months ago
(isn’t it funny, having to pass laws to give us rights —
don’t we have inalienable rights? Where did they go?)...

but still, the farther south you traveled in this country,
the harder it was for white men to treat us as human.
In the Midwest, all the way to Chicago, we were equals,

but it seems that Texas, in particular, didn’t want to shake
their feeling of false ownership, and we had to pay for it.
Maybe it took too long for Lincoln’s Proclamation to reach

Texas, but it wasn’t until June 19^th when Union General
Gordon Granger read “General Order No. 3” in Galveston,
that stated that we were free. General order number 3.

Those four words are music to my ears, thought I’m still
blown away that a war had to be fought, proclamations
had to be made across all of these states to proclaim

something we’ve known in our hearts, our souls, forever.
When this day finally came to us, call it on Juneteenth,
it really did lift each and every voice up to sing, hallelujah.