'Rasta chick!'

"Rasta chick!"
"Dredlahks!"

I've chosen to wear my hair this way
but strangers tend to put me in a box
of getting down and getting high
one more teen with blurry eyes shoutin' about
"Jah love for InI."

Yes I have dreadlocks,
I like reggae, and I like Jah,
but see to me it's just hair and music
and another name for the same God
worshiped by Jews, Muslims, and Christians
part of Abrahamic tradition
this religion now mostly appropriated
by youth as an excuse
to smoke pot.

Which is not my style,
because if you think about it it's like chanting "Baruch atah Adonai"
in order to eat latkes,
or thinking that a love of lamb dinner is cause
to become Greek Orthodox.
But last I checked faith wasn't a product of your tastebuds
and a taste for bud wasn't a mandate for conversion
and I can state for a fact
that not combing your hair is possible without drugs.
It just takes a little courage
to be fourteen and say, "I can be who I am
without hiding behind some cultural precedent I don't understand."

So I want to ask all the teens sporting red, yellow, and green to tell me:
Are you Bobo Shanti, Nihabinghi, or part of the Twelve Tribes,
do you read you Bible, do you honor Jesus Christ,
accept the divine standing of Haile Selassie I,
do you say your prayers
before getting high?
Are you following a Zion diet when you smoke,
or are you choking on Babylon's Doritos and Coke,
do you toke to get stupid or to understand,
do you believe that Ethiopia is the Promised Land,
do you work for repatriation or
are you another boss-man?

Because that's what these three colors are supposed to mean,
though no one here sees them as more than an ad for "Hi, I like weed."
But when you don't practice what the symbol on your department store t-shirt preaches,
you're tacking a bad rap onto the true believers.

Now, it's your body, what you put in it is for you to decide,
but don't give me this shit 'bout being Rastafari
just for a reason to spend your whole life getting high.
And if you feel such a need to justify,
maybe it's time to ask yourself why you really do it.
And if you don't know, maybe you'd be better off
if you just quit.