Enough lyrics

Had a poem here somewhere called "Enough"

That I'd like to do

Because every once in a while

A brother gets shot somewhere for no reason

A brother gets his head kicked in, for no reason

And you wonder just exactly what in the hell is enough

And that's what this poem is about

It was not enough that we were bought en brought to this home of the slaves

Locked in the bowels of a floating shit-house

Watching those we loved eaten away by plague and insanity

Flesh falling like strips of bark from a termite-infested tree

Bones rotting, turning first to brittle ivory, then to resin

That was not enough

It was not enough that we were chained by leg-irons

Black on black in black with a pit stained wall

Forced to heed nature's call

Through and inside the tattered of rags that stringed our privates

And evidently, years of slavery did not appease your need to be superior to something

Like a crazed lion hung up on being the king of his corner of the cage

Backs bend under the weight of being everything and having nothing

Mines too, like boomerangs curving back into themselves

Kicked and carved by the face-straining smiles that saved my life

That was not enough

Somehow I cannot believe that it will be enough

For me to melt with you and integrate, without the thoughts of rape and murder

I cannot conceive of on peace on earth until I have given you a piece of lead or pipe

To end your worthless, motherfucking existence

Imagine your nightmares of my sneaking into a veiled or satin bedroom

And attacking your daughter, wife and mother, at once

Ripping open their bowels sexually like a wishbone

Imagine that and magnify it a million times

When you realize that the blinders have been stripped from my eyes

And I realize that slavery was no smiling, happy fizzies party

Your ancestors raped my foremothers and I will not forget

I will not forget at Yale or Harvard or Princeton or in Hell, because you are on my mind

I see you every time my woman walks down the street with her ass on her shoulders

I see you every time I look in the mirror

And think of the times I used to pat myself for not being too black after all

I think of you morning, noon and night

And I wonder just exactly what in hell is enough

Every time I see a rope or gun I remember

And to top it all off, you ain't through yet

Over 50 you have killed in Mississippi since 1963

That doesn't even begin to begin all of those you have maimed, hit and run over, blinded, poisoned, starved or castrated

I hope you do not think that a vote for John Kennedy took you off my shit list

Because in the street there will only be black and white

There will be no Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates or any of the rest of that shit you have used

To make me forget to hate

There ain't no enough, there ain't no surrender

There is only plot and plan, move and groove, kill

There is no promised land, there is only the promise

The promise is my vow that until we have been nerve-gassed, shot down and murdered or done some of the same ourselves

Look over your shoulder motherfucker, I am coming

• Artist:Gil Scott-Heron
• Album:Small Talk at 125th and Lenox