Three Poems
“It wasn't Malcolm”
Who taught me to love Thomas Jefferson, who lived the same life of
abominable luxury and privilege, wrote an essay entitled "The Innate
Inferiority of the Negro", and attributed the pigmentation of black people
to a virulent form of leprosy?
It wasn't Malcolm
Who taught me to ignominously quote Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or
give me death!" while not telling me death is what he gave the black
slave?
It wasn't Malcolm
Who taught me to love Abraham Lincoln as my liberator, when in actuality
the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to the Confederate States, over
which he had no authority, and who also stated in no uncertain terms his
belief in the inferiority of black people, and advocated their exile from
America?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to mindlessly honor your “Independence Day” and your days
honoring the genocidal enslavers of my progenitors?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to fear the very sight of a white person with a heart seized
with terror?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me that your pious mouthings of justice meant the nearest tree?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me the shame of emasculation as you vilely used the black woman?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to make cowards of my children in the hope that such would
ensure their survival as half-women and men?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to cover the very poison responsible for the pillage of
Afrika and her enslavement?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to view the blackness of my skin with shame and
self-loathing?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me that the “American Dream” is an alcoholic or drug stupor for
so many?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me to disdain Afrika as a continent of savages worthy only of
ridicule?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who taught me that all beauty was white?
It wasn’t Malcolm
Who woke me up with a hail of bullets on February 21, 1965?
It wasn’t Malcolm…
When Malcolm is realized
When Malcolm is realized
No more black children will be shot by the police
With D.A.s saying justifiable homicide
When Malcolm is realized
The Hitlers of America
Thomas Jefferson and George Washington
Who held people in subhuman bondage
Will no longer be recognized as anything
But the criminals they were
When Malcolm is realized
The black minds forever bent
By the oppressive horrors of racism
Shall become a memorial to that
Which shall never again be
When Malcolm is realized
The drug and alcohol-stupefied
Shall disdain everything
But the reality of freedom
When Malcolm is realized
The pain of self-hatred
Shall give way to the
Exaltation of self-respect
When Malcolm is realized
The Black woman shall no longer bear
The divers yokes of white America
When Malcolm is realized
The soul weary with stripes of subjugation
Shall know the healing waters of dignity respected
When Malcolm is realized
Black people shall no longer fear their rage
When Malcolm is realized
The minister shall scorn everything
But the truly liberating message of freedom.
When Malcolm is realized
The affective pain of a loved one
Afflicted by racism shall be no more
When Malcolm is realized
Responsibility and not reliance
Shall be the hope of black people
When Malcolm is realized…
“Soweto 16 June 1976”
It stuns the senses
Like a sudden blow to the head
Over four thousand wounded
And seven hundred dead
School children protesting
Learning the language of their oppressor
Mowed down
Like they were the immoral aggressor
Where was the world’s conscience
Where was its rage?
Did the United Nations say this we cannot countenance
For war let’s set the stage?
Or could it be
The simple truth
Is that for black like me
Sham reproof is the substitute
When the issue is white supremacy?
Malcolm contemplation
Sleep deprivation
Food adulteration
Blood and mucus defecation
Kill orchestration
Mail desecration
J. Edgar Hoover propagation
Subject-a-nigger conversation
Mental assassination
George Rockwell denigration
Surrender to this revelation
My soul is fat on Malcolm contemplation.
“WINNIE”
They say you are corrupt
Morally bankrupt
They say you should bow down
Because you are no longer worthy of the crown
They say you are a disgrace
And should forever hide your face
They say you’ve become weak
And your own agenda seek
They say you are mad
The killer of a fourteen year-old lad
They say you are a liability
And should be cast aside like an enemy
They say we are too blind to see
The tears you cried to set your country free.