This poem was inspired by the novel The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

land of the free, home of the invisible,

no identity upon arrival, I was someone

back home, but I am no one here,

robbed me of my family, surrounded by

strangers, who, by reading their faces,

they feel the same pain,

it has to be something better than this,

why am I feeling hopeful when I’m

literally in hell, hearing the sneers

of ‘nigger’ and ‘boy’; I am a man,

but I’m nothing, here, at this place,

their tongues are foreign from mine,

I come from an empire, and now,

I am in shrouds, I can’t have a family

in these conditions, it’s impossible,

looking around, it’s the same treatment,

with my women, they are raped,

with my children, they are not cherished,

what is this hell that I’m in?

I am drafted in your pointless battles

only to still be treated like shit,

hovered by Jim Crow, can’t eat here,

can’t sit there, can’t drink there,

can’t piss here, got to enter from

the back door, can’t look at you

in the eyes, constantly harassed for

your entertainment, this is not life,

when we make our own living,

you constantly drive away, kill us

off, burn our town, we mind our business,

and you continue to meddle,

fuck with us for your entertainment,

fighting for civil rights, when it’s

getting more pointless because the

hate is still rotting in their ‘superior’ souls,

the cycle is repeating itself, but it’s

appearing in different ways, closely I see,

still the same treatment, it’s nothing new,

where I came from, we were superior,

everyone was seen as equals,

it will never be like this here, never

here, I am nobody,

I have no identity,

I am no one,

I am nothing.