The Odyssey
e.feleke

​my quiet confidence,
has turned into a quiet sense of apathy and consequence.
opting for the latter,
when the option first presented,
(by this ostracizing populace)
for optimism,
shattered any chance we had at stopping him.

u light a candle for our fallen angels.

take our music and our culture,
but u’ll never have this conversation,

cuz u don’t think ur racist.

and if im coming off as angry and jaded--
its cause i am--
and this is how u made it.

cuz ur perspective is a privilege that i can’t afford.
peace and love in politics is corny, fuxk u take me for?? —happy
as a clam?
don’t u tell us folk to lend a hand--
​and give a chance--

to politicians funded by the fuxking klan.

but let me bring it back.

because the topic is my shattered disposition,
not the chatter of aveli-mach.

cuz now im fixated on rising up and out the ash, witness my
survival: its the odyssey of living black.

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Ethiopian-american artist, e.feleke strives to embody the contemporary Hip-Hop poet. deriving his poetic lyricism from the stylings of artists like Kendrick Lamar and Yasiin Bey, e.feleke acknowledges Hip-Hop as the single most influential part of his identity. studies in Los Angeles, California.