Take A Knee          [Part 1 of My Folks of Color Trilogy]

Original poetry by Chrome Dome Mike Kimbro

Consider reading along to my Spoken Verse Performance.

VERSE 1

I must admit that I couldn't,

Give Black Lives Matter my support.

Then Sterling Brown parked where he shouldn't,

And I was sickened by the report.

VERSE 2

What called for just a ticket,

Was handled as if more severe.

While it might be too late to picket,

It's time that I got off my rear.

CHORUS

Take a knee.

Take a knee.

When our Anthem's playing,

With images of warfare,

From the early days of our nation.

Our minds won't be straying,

From the need to be more fair,

Than it was at the plantation.

So, go on,

Take a knee.

BRIDGE #1

I was on the fence,

About taking a knee.

It didn't make sense,

Doing it repeatedly.

Then police violence,

Occurred in Milwaukee.

Now for many years hence,

Kneeling's OK with me.

BRIDGE #2

Seems kind of dumb,

That an artist like me,

Took so long to join the fight.

It wasn't a bum.

But a beer town celebrity,

That was mistreated that night.

Verbiage went from:

Sterling's "Don't touch me."

Which, I'm thinking, was his right.

Pulled down in a scrum,

With the constabulary,

Who seemed anxious to fight.

It's hard to be numb,

To injustice in our country,

Once you have seen such a sight.

CHORUS

Take a knee.

Take a knee.

When our Anthem's playing,

With images of warfare,

From the early days of our nation.

Our minds won't be straying,

From the need to be more fair,

Than it was at the plantation.

So, go on,

Take a knee.

VERSE 3

On the "hand slaps", I have sided,

With the cops who need to learn tact.

It's quite enough that they provided,

The straw that broke the camel's back.

CHORUS

Take a knee.

Take a knee.

When our Anthem's playing,

With images of warfare,

From the early days of our nation.

Our minds won't be straying,

From the need to be more fair,

Than it was at the plantation.

So, go on,

Take a knee.

VERSE 4

This battle is intellectual,

And ideological in nature.

But any fight with the NFL,

Must be done with a legal nomenclature.

VERSE 5

The movement's 'mouthpiece' worked pro bono,

To insure the Super Bowl was fraughted.

But the offenses were a 'no show', so...

That's one game I wished I'd boycotted.

CHORUS

Take a knee.

Take a knee.

When our Anthem's playing,

With images of warfare,

From the early days of our nation.

Our minds won't be straying,

From the need to be more fair,

Than it was at the plantation.

So, go on,

Take a knee.

The End

Copyright © Michael Kimbro 2019.  All rights reserved.