I am caught between

distain and admiration

for non-Black Rappers.

If they are white.

do they have the right to write

Rap?

Sure,

they own a good control

of the elements,

but are they missing the soul

without the bloody stripes

on a lash-lacerated black back,

or an earned share of the DNA

from a lynched, innocent, brother?

I admire their rhyming thesaurus,

their rhythms…

but distain their presumptions!

Yet admire their attempts

to continue the Renaissance,

to,

at least,

leave guide lines along the road

for the rest of the Great Migration

towards an,

as yet,

undetermined destination.

Perhaps a thoughtful ambivalence

is all I can muster.

For, at least,

they try.