SECTION THIRTEEN POETRY PAGE THREE
sm
COLUMN FIFTY-TWO, OCTOBER 1, 2000
(Copyright © 2000 Al Aronowitz)
(Photo
by Myles Aronowitz)
'Nam
changed my loyalties
from red white and blue
to red black and green from Negro
to Maroon from soldier
to cong these words are not compositions
for English teachers
i am waging war
building bombs in basements
digging punji pits
rigging boobytraps
becoming a crack shot
these words go off in your face
if you are lucky
otherwise
they invade your body
ticking inside 'til 3am
ka-boooooooommmmm ka-boooooooooooommmmmm
ka-boooooooooommmmmmmm
a professor explodes
in his classroom
a student blows up in
his suburban bedroom
these
are not nice poems
for
status quo lives
fat on the milk of imperialism
these poems kill
stomp
racist energies that infect
the world
i am the worm
in the belly of America
shitting fire
into a polluted bloodstream
when you come for me
i will escape
to the stars
what i have not finished
will be done
in
other names ##
* * *
Ancient
Mother
Nile Woman/Queen Mother
Nubian woman,
You, rule words like
Cleopatra ruled Upper Egypt.
Yours are the eyes that cap
the pyramids,
Yours are the eyes that are the
fulcrum for the universe.
Stolen African Child,
Your screams of anger
And longng for home are
Poetic symphonies that build
Libraries and create villages.
You,snipe from rooftops
with your sentences,
You, plow fields and chop
cotton with your exclamation
points,
You, cook cabbage with your
poetry,
You, slaughter pigs with your poetry,
You, bake fresh bread,
You, pull up greens from city
backyard gardens,
You, play numbers everyday with
your poetry,
You, fill up the house with your
Chitlin’ smellin’ poetry,
You, rub linament on arthritic
joints with your poems,
You, set traps with your words
breaking fat rat necks,
You, hunt down roaches in
tenement kitchens with your rhymes,
You, clean windows, scrub floors,
open doors with your poetry,
You, heal the sick, feed the hungry,
give sight to the blind with your poetry,
You, set chained souls free
and raise the dead,
simply by the things you've said. ##
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN FIFTY-FOUR
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ