Prison Radio
Steven Nicholson

This one is for the University of Michigan’s Prisoner Creative Arts Program. We call that “P-CAP.” It’s for the creative writing final I’m going to do here in two weeks.  I call it, “Golden Nuggets. “

Golden Nuggets

Frivolous allegiance to the red or the blue,
will leave you black and blue
so learn the whole truth and nothing but the truth
about the red
the white
and the blue.

I read about so much white in school
and then looked at truth 
and it left me blue.

As a sixth-grade youth
I met Mr. Lambert,
African Studies,
he smuggled in these new books, 
banned books,
which planted hooks in my heart 
and renewed my mind 
as I came to find that many, of my time, 
beat Black’s bloody
red, or black and blue, 
and rarely did a righteous white 
make white look right. 

But some of us, ‘aight, right?

So, in some nightmares,
I see the American flag as red,
black and blue
but on a canvas backdrop 
all white.
But for me,
Black was the majority of my community, 
and what I knew in school 
and on my block too.

As one of the few white youths
I was groomed to love you, and you, 
and you.
Still love you too.

At my multi ethnic church, we loved every group because 
true Jesus love 
is grace and truth.
Just like P-CAP’s the truth 
P-CAPS’s the truth.

Now, religion, that kills
but real relationship with Jesus, that heals.
So come together no matter the weather.
A whole village can fight a storm
but when we try to stand all alone,
as it says in Proverbs 18:1,
we destroy ourselves.
We destroy our own.
We can’t destroy homes,
but leaning on people actually
extends the life of your backbone 
although this world is our temporary home.

Still, segregation? 
Yeah, that’s for a broken and backward nation, 
like that which accuses cannibalism on American Haitians. 
So, don’t be mistaken,
Martin Luther King’s dream
was one of the greatest,
and nothing’s changed this.
Make no mistakes about this. 

There’s no such thing as weakness 
to reach out to neighbors as brothers and sisters.
This love is the greatest.
Hating those who hate only creates more hating 
and begins breaking the bones 
and the spirit 
of the one hating.

Malcolm X was a witness to this 
as he elaborated on this exact phrasing
as an older and wiser member of the nation, 
while living in a nation 
that still hated him.

So what can we say then? 

System breaking is an ongoing fight
that we cannot win overnight
and toxic mentality only destroys mindsets of originality 
and individuality 
towards equality and rehabilitative qualities

So still, I’m rising
to fight from a place of open negotiation
to see the broken system in our broken nation
broken and dismantled
to start anew on foundations of…

Well, you tell me what you want to do?
Because I don’t control you
I only implore you to think of the youth 
and get a clue from beyond our known metaphysical truth.
PCAP’s truth like I told you, 
but US systemic roots are rotted. 
All the hate that’s spewed on all the news is the proof.

So please see the light coming at you.
Let it grasp you 
before that caboose run up on you
and pass you.
You too can be free at last
when you learn that all facts aren’t true.
The elite they lie to you 
in efforts to never surrender 
the hidden agenda 
to control you, 
and that’s a fact that’s true.

So, ride the wave of this brand new woke move 
before you, lose you.

These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.