Reparations
By MoPoetry Phillips
Repay me for being underpaid,
the micro aggressions,
the scathing looks,
for every time I walked away
appearing to be unscathed.
Repay me
for never accepting me
as your equal.
Repay my people,
especially our men,
for making incarceration
a slavery sequel.
Repay me for failing to promote me,
for your insubordination
when I was put in charge.
Repay me for taking credit for things I created,
the blatant disregard.
Repay me for always weighing my words on an unjust scale.
Repay me for the times you gave it to me,
but I didn’t tell you
to go to hell.
Repay me for always thinking you are right and
I am wrong.
Repay me
double overtime—
this has gone on
too long!
Repay me for feeling
I’m a threat
while threatening me with
“stand your ground.”
Repay me for every person who feared me
when I was around.
Repay me for the lack of eye contact and acting like I’m invisible.
While you say
(hand on your heart),
“One nation under God indivisible.”
Repay me for your patriotism that patronizes my Black pride.
Repay me for
racist broken systems
set against me
while my reparations are spent to get you higher rents from my neighborhoods
you gentrified.
Repay me
for the whip marks
on my ancestors’ backs,
black tax, and
police brutality.
Repay me like you’ve given reparations to other nationalities.
Repay me for the Fugitive Slave Laws that had us traveling from house to house
on the Green Book,
running Underground.
Repay me
because, even today,
there are still
Sundown towns!
This poem could go on forever
because the math ain’t mathin’ even though
I’m a Mathematician.
Consider this poem
a Demand Letter,
an invoice,
a requisition!
MoPoetry Phillips is an international spoken word artist; cofounder of Regal Rhythms Poetry LLC, which also curates Hit the Mic Cincy’s Open Mic; and president of Arts Equity Collective. She serves on the Juneteenth Cincinnati Inc. board leadership team and Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House board and is a Cincinnati Arts Museum standing committee member. MoPoetry Phillips has been highlighted in the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Herald, and Streetvibes and on Urban One Radio, WCVG, and WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition. Her passion is to unify spoken word artists to utilize their artistry to create a greater impact within the community and to connect artists to opportunities.
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