Black Note

the right song can have it’s way with you like a lover can have with your heart make you happy, sad, move you to do things you never thought you’d do think things your parents never taught you swing tunes cause a fever that jump-starts your heart and puts coals under your toes jazz songs that make cry and wanna choke your momma then bawl and hug your enemy soul music that starts moving you from your kitchen to your bedroom, and back again songs by black artists that told white kids they were more like them than their daddies told them saying, “like you, I only want to dance, party and hold my girl real tight” sharing secrets about how they snuck out at night and how his leaving hurt worse than any pain you’d ever felt before and have ever since rhythms that spoke to your soul and words that let you know you weren’t alone presenting the new black man and woman-the talented entertainer serenading and gyrating across the atlantic telling it how it really is for a black man in a white man’s world offering a window into a culture so similar to their own how hall and fun house mirrors take the same image but boast different perspectives first in restaurants then in clubs next on stages to moonwalking on TV screens fans of every hue in every tongue screaming “I love you! You are my idol!” I’d rather go blind than see things turn back Listening to music in a chair I didn’t know was a chair while I wasn’t sitting there Thinking about running down the street shouting out loud “I’m black and I’m proud!” Yes better is a must And much has been done Every ear perks up at the sound of a hot beat And my skin is no longer my leprosy Colored songs formed a weapon that struck ignorance at its core And left it rocking to the rhythm of it’s song