|
Mobutu
& Zaire
(for Elombe Brath)
The night was a flatted 5th
on the 24th of the 6th
2 days into its cancerian descent
beyond the sun standing at its
highest peak
flattened as it was
the night stretched longer
and it did so by degrees invisible
to the naked eye
9 days before the annual
resurrection
of
red white
and blue glory
9 days left before the end of
british domination
minus the beatles and brooks
brothers
the 9 days of
lent/till/black/red/yellow/green
or white beans as a staple fades
for the next 2 months
unless they're swimming in a
catsup-based bar-b-q sauce
Now
it all be hickory charcoal
with mayonnaised potatoes cabbage
and elbow
macaronis jive time phonies
no fiber 'til fall
ribs chicken and variations of the
beef
ground round shredded embedded
and reconstituted going with the
4th
reconstipated
I mean constituted meat and poultry
as if meat and poultry ain't the
same
what a game
and the bowels on full time
resistance to natural peristalsis
or whatever they call that part of
the digestive process
anyway no
gain no pain
As the flattened night yields to
dawn
morning makes a sharp left
to a quarter note on a dime
turning 90 degrees to an obscure
6/8
Trane flies
across international skies
raining down notes
melodic messages of hope
Better things to come
Mandela's rise
Kubila's triumph
mobutu's demise
we look for a smoothness now
a mellow cooling out
mixing
old mixing new
coagulating
a new start re-start
to build and re-build
to make the earth
right our birth right
Trane flies
on every tempo
across oceans of sound
with belief rising
from everyone of them
a sweetness from the balladeer
an offering of truth -- Proof
of the
possibilities an endless
nest of potentials
coming from the base
mentoring or massaging
the spirit
flying high
Climbing down
breatherizing that brass woodwind
tube
blowing trumpet changes
from a drum chord with bass
changes
melodically emanating from the
keyboard
Did you know Stevie Wonder was his
student
not seeing
only hearing focusing
interpreting the changes
translating sound for mass
consumption
another step forward to determine
why what where when how
the scene plays out with who
Mandela's not the end
and Kabila's not the beginning
it is a continuous flow of
struggle lifting and raising mankind
in spit of itself
What if we did not come from
africa
but to africa
Garvey's
gift
a fan shaped mirror
Malcolm's tough sharp slicing
tongue
DuBois' stamina belief insight and
analytical patience
Fidel's
return an army of successful soldiers
schooled in guerilla science
What if we did not come from but
to Africa
what if we did not come to but
from Africa
and we did
no-no-no
no beginning, no ending
but a continuous flow of struggle
and lifting
and lilting and struggle in spite
of as Trane hands off to Stevie
and Stevie hands off to . . . and
on an on and on
as mobutu fades into a night of
flatted fifths
alongside tshombe casavubu baby
doc batista
and the rest of our mistakes
We stretch to take control of our
existence
determine we do so by
degrees invisible to the naked eye
. . . over and out! * *
* * * |
