All The Love For The President-Elect
NPR.org, January 16, 2009 ·
U Being U
U Being U
Mr. President-Elect
Makes me wanna get MY stuff
correct
I feel like starting with something RADICAL
Like,
Love my Neighbor
Like share what I’ve got
Like think for myself
Like ask the hard questions
Like lean toward the good and help keep the peace
U being U
Makes me wanna do something new
Like Go Green, or at least try to.
You being you, Mr. President-Elect
Makes me want to look on others with respect
Makes me wanna
practice Radical Inclusion, you know,
Open my heart wide, especially in the presence of folks who
Are not like me, you know,
work to see my Brother
In the Other
You make me want to entertain all my far-out ideas
Make me wanna represent the race, as in the human race,
And know that, like You, I too am Prized.
And to those who say yr a Magic Negro,
I love them just the same
And my love helps us weave a United States.
Mr. President,
Heaven sent
Since heaven is just a place where possibility
becomes possible
And where hostility
holsters
its hostile,
I feel like picking up the trash in the park or on the beach
I think I’ll teach, and learn, from all I meet
I think I’ll apologize in person for all our faults
and try to make amends for our shortcomings
And also, I think,
I’ll brag,
Just a little bit,
About how cool We The People are
Oh, I just had to sing you a little something
Because you,
Mr. President,
You are embarking with Us on an awesome and beautiful
And potentially perilous journey
And so I am giving you
All the Love
All the Love
All the Love
All the Love
Mr. President
That I’ve got
Because I believe
In the dream
And I am ready
To wake up
And live it.
Suzan-Lori Parks is a novelist and playwright. She is the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in drama for the play Topdog/Underdog.
All The Love For The President-Elect : NPR.
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Tags: barack obama, obama, poetry, Politics
