Strange Fruit

Strange fruit hanging down

You know the saying, beggars can't be choosers
With no choice, you simply are the loser
It's a game of predispositions
They never share it 'cause all of the privilege is inherent
If you fit the Bill
Clinton, Gates, what do they have in common
Genetically a similarity that Nye would fall in
I'm not the darkest but I'm dark enough
Shades make for strange fruit that hang above
Why, aren't there more physicists that look like me
I'm staring through the tele right at NDT
I'm in emotional flux, deGrasse is so kinetic
But oppression yields potential that is wasted

I have some success, can I refi to live like you
To live amongst iniquities and have no clue
That there is no serenity for particular hues
From the days of the middle passage taken by the crews

Trees are all around this town
Bearing strange fruit hanging down
Winds will blow a scent that is foul
All day, year round
Will it end

A bit exhausting seeing the wrongful arrests
So excuse my subconscious it is depressed
Conjure up a facade that's sufficient at best
But I'm harboring a fearful being behind this chest
Why, can't I walk with a hood and a pack of skittles
Or play with a plastic gun if I were only little
Maybe reach for my license and registration
But served with 7 bullets, to my mother's devastation
Can't breathe, can't breathe, so please let up
Black isn't a synonymous with crook
The shade of the berry isn't exclusive to hue
But complexity within it upon which you have skewed

The fragility of which abused
The insecurity from eyes on you
No serenity for particular hues
From the days of the middle passage taken by the crews

Trees are all around this town
Bearing strange fruit hanging down
Winds will blow a scent that is foul
All day, year round
Will it end

You know it gets hard sitting in the kitchen
Speaking to the family on the latest of afflictions
They were targets, but innocent
The perp is acquitted leaving my people in dissonance
They say that we should sit and be complicit
Our violence is illicit
But an officer kneeling on the neck of a man isn't
Stronger leadership would take a stand
Policies to police the police and reprimand

Systemic unease creates the cynic in me
See George, Philando, and more to paint the view
That there is no serenity for particular hues
From the days of the middle passage taken by the crews

Trees are all around this town
Bearing strange fruit hanging down
Winds will blow a scent that is foul
All day, year round
Will it end

Strange fruit hanging down