Black Cloud (2021)

5ft x 4ft

Acrylic and oil on canvas

Black Cloud (2021)

written by Shaquille-Aaron Keith

I could tell you about this black cloud over my head,
In fact It came with the chip on
My shoulder,
Something I didn’t feel till I personally got older.

With my peers,
We discuss it in British Ebonics,
Simplify those thoughts for anyone else though the pain is still chronic,
No longer excited for all the tomorrows,
still recovering from every yesterday,
On my pillow where my dreams do lay,
Every morning, I make the wish
To start living those same dreams today.

My mother used to tell me about
Taxes and death
Unescapable pressures
Like drowning and yearning for
One more breath,
Just One more chance,
To escape incarceration, segregation,
But within my communal nation,
They’ve dismantled the will
Of wanting for self and determination.
So where does that leave me?

Screaming Life’s a bitch because
This black cloud won’t leave me.

It makes me wonder if my entrance
To the world was nothing but wrong.
Delete me,

Accompanied by the saddest of songs,
And a corrupt system,
Where no one but those who look like
I,
Internally may listen,
I ask myself,
Can I get a second chance to be alive and be proud?
Or am I destined to survive underneath this thunderous black cloud?