It used to take a village...
Our children would do what an adult told them to do whether
they had your last name or not but somewhere along the way they decided that to
discipline your child to keep your seed from dying on the concrete instead of
growing into a rose was to abuse your child so we let our children run wild and
we cry when mama gotta bury her seed and that rose ends up on top of that
baby’s casket. Where was the village?
The only time our children had any business on the block was
to shoot hoops and jump loops, play hopscotch and four square and everybody
knew they betta have they ass inside before the street lights came on - now the kids on the block hold guns and
dope instead of balls and rope and the only chalk you find on the sidewalk now
is in a never ending line in the shape of a girl who grew up on the block and
got shot a week before med school. Where
was the village?
When it became ok to look the other way while our children
went astray, where was the village?
When parents decided to let TV, HD, PS3, BET, MTV, VH1,
Keesha from up the street, and anything or anyone other than themselves take on
the responsibility of raising their seed, where was the village?
Our daughters grew up playing with dolls that looked like
babies, now they’re havin’ ‘em while they still are.
Our sons used to wanna play with toy soldiers, now they
pullin’ out different soldiers and the battle becomes life long.
Our parents used to care about how their children ended up,
who their friends were, who their mothers were, what time they went to bed,
what they watched on tv, hell even what they ate.
Our parents used to be concerned about the grades our kids
brought home, how they conducted themselves in school cause you better not get
up in there and embarrass me!
Our parents used to come up to the schools and meet our
teachers, they used to actually show up for field trips and conferences and
hell, they even signed permission slips.
When our parents stopped helping our kids with their
homework and teaching them to read and write because then they’d act white,
where was the village?
When our sons and daughters started making babies together,
and people stopped parenting their own damn children and started throwing them
away to the Crips and the Bloods, where was the village?
What’s wrong father?
Oh right, you weren’t ready to be one, so you just bounced over to the
next chick you ain’t ready to have a kid with.
Do you have a son or a daughter?
Do you know?
What happened mother?
Too busy trying to “get yours” that you didn’t notice your daughter was
getting hers too? Congratulations
Grannie. 35? No, that’s not too young to be a
grandmother!
How about you neighbor?
When did you stop caring enough to stop that 17 year old boy from taking
that little 14 year old girl behind the building because he wanted to show her
how much he LOVED her? Why don’t you
tell her father who planted the seed of his grandchild in her womb since she
ain’t sayin? And don’t worry about
calling the police on that teenage boy selling dope right in front of your
house. Don’t look down on him now. You shouldda done that back in the day when
he still looked up to you. But you
decided to sit back and watch his stare turn to dope boys with blue rags and
shake your head ‘cause you just don’t understand what’s wrong with kids
today. What difference could you have
made…villager?
When we decided to let our seed die, let their dreams die,
let their futures die, and let their minds die, therefore letting ourselves
die, did we let the village die too?
Where is the village now?
The village is dead.
