Language Was the Weapon

For the ones who used their words to battle injustice, and fight for equality & liberty.

The preachers and the activists,
the fighters and the revolutionaries
used language as a weapon
against the oppressors.
They wielded words with power:
fashioned verbs into axes to chop up
false narratives of inferiority,
sharpened adjectives like knives
to emblazon our tragedies black and
our triumphs blue
and crafted interjections
that punctuated our rights like gunfire;
They spit out speech and verse
essay and prose
song and sermon
and united a people long repressed.
Theirs was a mission sacred,
addicted to a need for the liberty
and the equality of their brown-skinned brethren;

With breath and tone
with pen and ink
in lyric and song
language was the weapon,
the tool to grasp the oppressors by the neck,
no matter their number,
and hold them down
letting them choke on their lies
their fears
their hatred and ignorance
so that we, dark-skinned children of tomorrow,
could be who we were always meant to be:
black, strong, and free.


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