Welcome to this week's Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week's episode features Christopher D. Sims.
Sims is from the West Side of Rockford and first shared his poetic gifts onstage at Haskell Elementary School, thanks to Dorothy Paige-Turner.
Rooted in Black joy and celebration, his poems wind through the landscapes of this country's past and present. He hopes they will inform, engage and entertain. Sims, who originally wrote rap and hip-hop lyrics, said his poetry has a bebop cadence.
He is preparing to relocate to Minneapolis, Minnesota to work for a nonprofit. He’s also looking for ways to speak poetically about the Twin Cities while connecting with other writers, poets, and spoken word artists.
Today he shares his poem “To Give the World a Break, a Breather."
Dear patriarchy:
We need a break from you, a breather. Under your old, cold control, we have lost so much of our humane souls.
The stress you’ve caused women, children, this planet is uncontested. What your doings have manifested is leaving the eco of life breathless.
It is a disorder. We are all suffering from what you have brought to Earth. It hurts. You burst onto the scene with all kinds of destructive energy.
Dear patriarch, white man’s patriarchy, aren’t you sorry for all of what you have destroyed?
At this point, it is impossible to avoid your mayhem. You have caused global strife. You know not a heart-filled life! It is all about your inventions, your plans, your dreams, your focus on device after device!
Where is our order?
How will we get rid of this stress?
Less, is the galaxy when it is you who march on casually leaving casualties!
What about the women?
How will they ever see equity, equality under your one-man show philosophy?!
Never, probably!
Male, man, bravado, butcher, break, machismo, misery, power, punks, the popo!
We will be wondering years down the line, where did all the love go.
The love is being slaughtered under the existence of patriarchy stress disorder.
You are the opposite of a sage, a healer. We need a breather, a breather.
Copyright Christopher D. Sims 2021
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.