On The Origin Of Things
by Ancestor Elder Listervelt Middleton Look around you Black childyour creation is everywhere
Though painted, distorted,
given new names
they bear your prints
just the same
so sharpen your eyes
tune your ear
so you'll know what you see
understand what you hear
you were the first to write
the first to read
humanity sprang
from your black seed
for 110,000 years
you were here alone and
and then the Caucasian man
was born
behind the ice
inside the cold
a chill set in
this new man's soul
other minds have been credited
with the things
they learned from you:
Newton, Pythagoras, Kepler
and Galileo too
sharpen your eyes
tune your ear
so you'll know what you see
understand what you hear
you made the serpent the symbol
of the healing arts
and African justice
was Goddess Maat
who weighed herself
against the African soul
truth and justice blind-fold
the George Washington monument is yours too
a copy of the African Tekenu
the symbol of the Black world's
powers of creation
the Black man's penis
in divine procreation
the king of Southern Egypt
wore the white crown
keep listening
and you'll catch your mouth
when you learn that
the central government in Egypt
was known as the White House
sharpen your eyes
tune your ear
so you'll know what you see
understand what you hear
your God Osiris
was restored to life
long before Buddha
long before Christ
and today
what you call the Madonna and child
is but the first Black family
worshipped 'long the Nile
and when you feel the Spirit-
the Holy Ghost
you should know
it started at Abydos
where God Osiris' body was laid
the Holy Land
where Africans prayed
minute by minute
hour by hour
as you lose your history
you lose your power
so sharpen your eyes
tune your ear
so you'll know what you see
understand what you hear
