"The Tree" (2003)
by Tik'al Storm Rydah
native man once told me:
native man once told me:
“you don’t have no history!
no Pyramid of the Sun
a victim of the dog and gun
your voices never recorded
decimated tribe into extinction
you worked behind an ox
no beautiful tapestries
just some carvings on some rocks!”
african
man once told me:
“you don’t have no history!
no Pyramid of Khufu
no lineage from Ra
no Shaka or Nkrumah
yo, what the hell is a 'bori-KWA' ?!
don’t have a nation of your own
you bastards were disowned
a country BUILT on muthaf*ckin' loans”
spanish
man once told me:
“you don’t have no history!
no great cathedrals
no written language
you can't even talk right
4,000 years
of that illiterate word plight
children of pirates and moors
your destiny will STAY in the sewers
along with all the dog manure!”
I don't have no history…
...but, I have me
and “me” is the “three”
61 -
27 - 12*
that's
how the strands come together
to
form the consciousness of my 3 Selves
a DNA of understanding
understanding the key
free from racial inequity
double helix now defining me
the multiversal
often controversial
ROOT of my tree
outwardly-growing
into the flow of the ages
multipliciously-moving
in creative-type rages
now, I 'm more able
no longer unstable
searing deep cosmic vision
that began at
Nana's navel
whilst people kill each other over “race”
I understand the
different parts of my “Be”
I overstand what
it TOOK to become “Me”
so we
can see
and sit DOWN by that tree
contemplating its roots
as they twist and turn
letting our conscious burn
through the herb
which cuts
through the muck
of this polluted disgust
we call...
...Existence
let
the sacred leaves crackle
as
the chickens start to cackle
in this barnyard of the ignorant
third
world styler
boricua
SOUL provider
NEVER
the profiler
better
yet more prolific
nothing
SHORT of terrific
harmonising
mental word tunes
an
areyto that awakes you...
...to WHO you are
more than a sp*c
you are keeper of the rainbow
more than a hick
from Deminan's backbone
born
of Jikoteah
the
turtle
our
Mother Universal
which
we cohabit with her children
on
an island hopping-type dispersal
rise
high and strong
you
no good dirty Rican
listen
to the herb cause it's speakin’
about
your ghetto marvelous beacon
from
under sidewalk crust
I'ma
be what I must be
but,
I'ma speak about “I”
and “We”
shucked all the labels
removed all the jewels
all that’s inconsequential
for me to attain monumental
there's still a
world of shame and poverty
that
needs to be lifted
by
us who happen to be gifted
with
life
and
words
nouns working like verbs
now...
...I scribe like simplicity
no
labels
just
me
the
easiest flow
for
all the world to see
like the curving smoke of Ganja
from this one spot
I swirled into the etherness
to become...
...me
took that quantum leap
to become...
...three
no
glit and glam
not even trying to show how much better I am
cause I am not
I am
free
I am
love
I
can SEE
reuniting my root
all
this genetic dispute
...over
me?
...the boricua cypha?
see
I'm not gonna hypha-nate
or
sit home & hiber-nate
come
out into full view
with
a searing tongue of fire
the gods are playing for me
the guy
the man
from NuYoRico
muthaf*cka, my name ain't chico
close your cheeks
stop spreading fecal
matter
like a hater
I am me
the three
taino… afro… arab
but speaking a language of scarabs
I am deep
never average...
...cause average never adds up for me
lyrical
mathematician
remove
your left and right brain partition
observer
of the material culture
of all these primal vultures
the
true
the
one
like
Jet Li multiversing it
I’ma
come through without rehearsing shyt
I am
not restricted by the frozen words
of a
thought
I
just continue like
dot
dot dot
into
infinity
like
an untouchable entity
I
flow
with
universal liquidity
I
flow
connecting
like serendipity
powerful
auric cycles
coiling
forever skywards
drawing
Kundalini spirals
towards my godhead
and
back down
completing
the cypha
a
mind getting riper
emulating
me into Existence
on
this spinning ball of iron
burrowing
through the aqueous-ness of space
spitting fire out my god eye
the third of the three
this powerful tree
rising up to the sun
letting justice be done
spreading love all around
laying all this shyt down
I am the king who sits in a chair
with a colourful cardboard crown...
...or a
baseball cap
caribbean
cypha
laid
out like an aztec calendar
running around 360
muthaf*ckas be like: “what
the f*ck hit me?”
like
a matrix scene
kicking
around in a dream
I’ma
be proud
don’t care if you’re ghetto-azz loud
f*ck what you say about me
I am
the power of this tree
the
one that is made by the three
the
three that has become...
...ME.
copyright
2003 SoulChangoInk
* This is an average population reference in 2003 done on 800 persons
when Martinez-Cruzado first did mtDNA testing on
specific Puerto Ricans with actual significant native heritage;
mostly in the southwestern part of the island.
DNA testing was relatively new at that time.
My atDNA is: https://bit.ly/3N00fI1