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    No Queens in the Kingdom

    Suppose

    Just suppose

    That all the rappers

    All the rappers who ever used the words “bitch” or “ho” in a song

    Controlled the United States government

     

    Suppose

    That this rapper government sent out police

    Special units dressed in sweats and backwards baseball caps

    Sent them into every neighborhood

    To arrest any woman who wasn’t acting “properly”

     

    Suppose

    That this government of all the rappers who ever used the words “bitch” or “ho” in a song

    Refused to allow women to vote

    Or to drive

    Or to go to school

    Or to get a divorce

    Or to ever leave the house

     

    This is just a fantasy, right?

    The over-heated product of my fevered imagination

    You wish

     

    Take out the hip-hop part

    And hop on over to Saudi Arabia

    And you’ll find that this sick fantasy is alive and well

    For Saudi women

    All 14 million of them

     

    They aren’t allowed to vote

    Or to drive

    Or to go to school

    Or to get a divorce

    Or to ever leave the house

     

    This is terrible but it doesn’t affect you, does it?

    Hey, Saudi Arabia is 8,300 miles away

    What goes on there doesn’t affect you, does it?

    You wish

     

    Our government

    The real one of corporations, not rappers

    Our government

    Has given over three hundred billion dollars to the Saudi royal family

    To preserve the status quo there

    That’s your money

    When you get paid

    Under deductions

    It should say

    “Saudi Royal Family”: $42 a week

     

    Every time you see a library close in America

    Or a school go without books

    Or a hospital downsize

    Think of how your taxes are spent

    Saudi Arabia may be 8,300 miles away

    But it’s also smack dab in the middle of your neighborhood

     

    Our government

    The real one of corporations, not rappers

    Our government

    Dresses our sons and daughters in fatigues

    And sends them to Saudi Arabia

    Where bombers bomb them and snipers snipe them

    Three hundred billion dollars covered in blood and oil

    Our leaders choke these Arabs with dollahs

    Then when the blowback comes they blame it on Allah

     

    When the man in uniform comes to your door to say

    “I regret to inform you…”

    You scream

    The Saudi women scream

    Because without our sons and daughters and dollars

    The royal family would be overthrown

    In a heartbeat

     

    And Saudi women’s hearts would beat again

    And your son’s heart would beat again

     

    But what about the women here in America?

    What about these words “bitch” and “ho”?

    We want uplift

    A different world, if you get my drift

    But we’ve got no power

    Those of us underpaid by the hour

    We only have power

    Over what we choose to listen to

    Or what we choose to say

     

    What about our leaders who have all the power?

    Misogyny has many progeny

     

    When you ask these leaders

    Why did my daughter get killed in Saudi Arabia

    And my niece amputated in Iraq?

    When you ask these leaders

    Why can’t my wife get health care?

    When you ask these leaders

    Why does my mother go hungry?

     

    They answer:

    It’s your songs, your lyrics, your images

    Don’t ask us to get involved in bigger scrimmages

    Til you clean up your act

     

    When our leaders run this game

    We believe them

    We receive them

    With respect they’ve never earned

     

    When words mean more to us

    Than a woman from Jalisco

    Raped by the Border Patrol and left to die in the Arizona desert

    Then yes, we must admit

    It’s time to clean up our act

     

     

    Poem / 2008

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