Tag Archives: Hard Work

There’s One Thing That Matters, And It’s Not Skin

I talk about love

And I talk about life,

How I do honest work

For my kids and my wife,

How I got a step up

From my forefather’s grace,

But what keeps me alive

Is the sweat on my face.

I won’t take a dime

If it hasn’t been earned;

Can’t regret when I failed

Because that’s when I learned.

I can say what I say

With no need for defense

Because what I say

Is just plain common sense.

So if you think I hate

Someone ‘cause they’re not white,

Consider a moment

That you may not be right.

Perhaps I respect

Those who earned their own keep

With an excess of ethics

And an absence of sleep;

Maybe the reason

You’re not on my mind

Is because I’m a doer

And I like my own kind.

You want to be equal?

Well, I want that too.

While I’m out here working

I’ll watch what you do

And when you go home

Having done what you should

You won’t think about race:

You’ll be feeling too good!

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Normalcy Is Discouraged

If a thing is worth the work

Required to do it well

Then it is also worth the time

To be lousy as Hell.

If you hunt and fight and sing

And miss and lose and cry

You’ve far surpassed the many

Who were too afraid to try.

The losers of the universe

Die proudly in the sand,

Pleased to bear their battle scars

With dirt upon their hand.

There are no failures in the world

Of doing what’s worthwhile,

For both the best and all the rest

Have earned the right to smile.

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