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A Real
Long Look
(from Maurice Bishop 1984)
Space
unended space
needing to be filled
with
time sculpted
into something meaningful
there was a time we boasted
newness
new blackness
now we find there is
only a reshaping of time
and a reordering of the priority
there can should and will be a
new view
after careful re-view and a
discarding of the old way of being here
This thing we fight
is it about capitalism
is it about neo-capitalism
stretching forth
a creation aimed at the next
millennium
is it about colonialism
is it about neo-colonialism
stepping back
a recreation of a fantasy that
safely was
and re-was for the second half of
the 20th century
How about imperialism
totalitarianism fascism or
apartheidism?
This thing we seek
is it about communism
is it about neo-communism
stretching forth
a creation to fight the creation
aimed at exploitation
is it about socialism
is it about neo-colonialism?
how about marxism leninism
trotskyism stalinism
a fantasy for a fantasy
show me yours, I'll show you
mine-ism?
In this space needing to be filled
do we seek to sculpt it with
get all the gold
grab all the resources
harness all the energy
possess all the power
dominate the planet isms?
Is it Is it Is it Is it
about the pawns used in the isms
or about the isms used to recruit
pawns?
is that the love lost of one's
self
is that the love lost of one's
family
(immediate and extended)
why has masochism become so
attractive?
what of the love lost of one's
Gods
who shall we worship this year
who shall we worship this decade
who shall we worship this
generation?
This meaning we seek
is it about neo-one worldism
sculpting out
a meaningful amalgamation of
skills resources views
philosophies cultures and the like
and under whose flag?
is it about workerism
is it about neo-workerism
how about peopleism
the greatest goodism
simple idealism utopianism or
who's the bossism?
Has there been an obliteration of
our memory sense
is there a drug that's been
absorbed through some
21st century osmose regulated
process
perfected in the twentieth century
to cause mass
senselessness as to who what where
and why
we are here and how we survive(d)?
Is it is it is it is it
that we have forgotten or pushed
out of our very heads our very
beings
the memory of Goree Island
10,000,000 executed
never making the middle passage
and what of this middle passage
20,000,000 devoured by the sea
was it about theftism
was it about desecrationism
how about the spoils of war
that's-the-breaks imperialism?
Check this
do you remember King Leopold 9from
the
belgian congo) and the western
cartel
ten million executed and twice
that number
dismembered and de-limbed
was it about population
control-ism
or is it a mindbender to remember
Toussaint L'Ouverture versus
Napoleon Bonaparte
or Nat
Turner Gabriel
Prosser Denmark Vesey
Esteban Montejo
Jose Marti
Montezuma Cochise
Frederick
Douglass Monroe
Trotter The Scottsboro Boys
(and the strumpets they were
accused of
defiling on a freight train
or the reason
why such a furor anyway)
was it disrespectfulism
or was it euro-american christian
nationalism?
Has the wonder drug discharged
from our memory
the missouri
riots new york massacres
Black wall
street the Aztec Empire
blown up
bellies twisted
fee gnarled hands
demented off
spring wrecked wombs
castration and sodomy for the sake
of . . .
was it about pure pleasure-ism or
get-you-thing-off-ism
why has masochism become so
attractive?
this thing we seek
is it about negro militarism
is it about neo-negro militarism?
who were the real Rough Riders
do you remember when they
reappeared
in France, 1917, got the job done
was this about pure patriotism?
oh! how quickly we forget
no gig no grit no gratitude
was it about anti-workerism
anti-soldierism and
cool-you-role-ism?
Let a race of men now rise and
take control
Do you remember Adolph, not
Memphis the slick
hollywood 40's character, the
master race cat
who would rise and try to take
control of
those who controlled us?
So we marched to the sands of
Tripoli
and the shores of Iwo Jima
from Guam to Yokohama
with John Wayne leading each
campaign (at MGM studios)
as the Buffalo soldiers do it
again
only a reshaping of time and space
reordering priority
was this Patriot-Plus-ism or
this is our real shotism
gigless gritless and no gratitude
riding off into the sunset as they
returned
could it be the love lost of one's
self
could it be the love lost of one's
family
could it be the love lost of one's
Gods?
who shall we worship this year
Booker T.
Washington W.E.B. DuBois
Marcus Garvey
who shall we worship this
decade Patrice Lumumba
Kwame
Nkrumah Nelson
Mandela Steven Biko
who shall we worship this century
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King Fidel Castro
who or maybe waht shall we worship
JFK Bobby
Kennedy George Wallace
Marx Engels
Lenin Mao
the right the left
the real American or the expensive
import
is it about socialism
is it about communism?
It is is it is it about realism
and
is realism about the pawns used to
recruit isms
or about the isms used to recruit
pawns
is realism about exploitation by
all of the isms
or is it
really for
us about racism?
A narrow passageway
a window of despair
makes no sense
the choice should be obvious:
A new view after careful review
and a
discard of the old way of being
here |
