Love Yourselves Poem by Hebert Logerie

Love yourselves
If you love yourselves
Nobody will try to put you on shelves
So you can be sold like cats and cattles
If you love yourselves
Nobody will dare putting sagged saddles
On your back
Nobody will try to attack
You or your look-alikes
Nobody will use guns, tasers, and spikes
To control your behaviors
And everybody will come as saviors
To defend your color, your lives,
And your styles
Loving yourselves
Means respecting yourselves
Where others cannot disrespect
You, your gentle genre, your sect,
Or your siblings
If you love yourselves
Nobody can put rings
On your neck, chains
And shackles on your ankles
Nobody will dare to inflict so many pains
And so much sufferings
On your mother, father, aunts and uncles
Black People, love yourselves
Be good, be smart, and be nice
Be proud, be strong and courteous
So others can and will respect you
So others won’t deface you
So others won’t ridicule you
So others won’t attack you
Because all of us will have your back
Be proud of being black
Be proud of who you are
Be smart, do not start the war
Whoever starts it, will lose
Some of you ought to stop acting like fools
Cracked heads are not smart
Drug addicts are indeed part
Of the problems, they are not cool
Most of them do not go to school
They lie, cheat, steal, rape, kill, and murder
They are the children of Lucifer
Love yourselves
Stay away from trouble and bad stuff
Otherwise, your lives will be difficult and rough
This message is directed to not only you, Brothers
And Sisters, but also to the enemies and the perpetrators
Love yourselves
If you do love yourselves
You don’t need to hate the others
Who won’t be able to treat you like serfs.